Five Feet Apart (2019)

Stella spends most of her time in the hospital. Her life full of routines and self-control. Everything she knows is tested when she meets Will. Another patient with the same illness. Their instant attraction leads to the temptation to break all the rules and boundaries they've always known.

Rating: 4/10 
Genre: Drama
Related Titles: Midnight Sun. The Fault in our Stars, Everything Everything
By Leanne Harragan
Contains minor spoilers  

Five Feet Apart is part of the latest trend of movies that include someone with an illness or life-altering disease that affects their day-to-day lives (the related titles list above gives an idea of what I mean!) Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with these film, in fact the representation of this group of people is fantastic, I just don't love the way this film portray illness and love, it always seems a little problematic and unfortunately this film is no different. 

With two leading names in the young-adult world of actors leading the charge (Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson) performances can't be faulted, they brought these characters to life well and they did have good chemistry which is pretty important in a film that is so heavily reliant on their romantic relationship. The problem comes in the way these characters are written. Stella (Richardson) is an overly-organised to the extent that she's a little annoying. Will (Sprouse) is angst-y, refuses to take his condition seriously and generally just a dickhead and completely unlikable. It makes it quite hard to root for their love to work out because he's just so annoying, in an attempt to make him more likeable cost of treatment and drain on his family is brought in as a reason for the way he acts but it still makes him a pretty unlikable guy. 

Another problem with films like this are they are pretty predictable, they almost always follow a pattern that is very rarely wavered from. Sweet girl falls for 'bad' guy - they go on a series of 'quirky' dates - problem one gets sick or someone dies - couple make a break to live their best life before the illness takes that away from them - inevitable parting for some reason. This film follows that pattern to a tee. Their quirky dates come from wandering around the hospital and going wherever they want (yeah right!) all with a pool cue between keeping the suggested distance of five feet apart. 

One thing that I did appreciate about this film was the relationship between Stella and her (shock) gay best friend Poe. Having met at the hospital from a young age their friendship grew over time, I appreciated this because it was actually a well-developed relationship and the way they behaved and the things they spoke about made the friendship seem very real. Unfortunately this ends tragically (as could have been predicted) in his untimely death, making the 'kill all your gays trope' continue to live. 

Everything about this film, especially everything in the second half, asks the audience to suspend belief for the things that take place. Honestly, it's fine, it's not the best film I've seen, it's not the worst film I've seen. It's just too cheesy and contains some poorly and problematically written characters. Representation of people suffering from cystic fibrosis on the big screen is great, I think the subject matter just needs to be handled more carefully. 

Rating: 5/10

By Rebecca Mannick 

There are many films on the same topic or similar as Five Feet Apart. A teenage love story which isn't straightforward because of a life threatening illness. In this case we follow Stella Grant who lives in a hospital as she has MS. The wing that she is on has other kids her age going through the same thing. There is where she meets Will Newman - he is a pessimistic guy who is full of dry humour and also kind of a dickhead. Stella keeps to all the rules to try and aid her recovery which includes keeping six feet apart from people to avoid cross contamination. Will and Stella eventually become attracted to one another and Stella influences Will to become serious about his own recovery. Stella also has a vlog where she journals her life living with MS. Will and Stella become close but they can never be closer than six feet apart. 

First of all I freaked the hell out because one of the doctors is played by Parminder Nagra who also plays Jessminder in Bend it like Beckham which is my all time favourite movie of all time. Anyway moving on -- Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse head up the lead characters and you can't really say more than its all just a bit average. They are fine as actors and their performances are just fine and nothing is stand out. Theres also another Disney channel familiar face in Moises Arias as he plays Poe - also one of the only films this year to feature an openly gay character.

Overall, I just cannot label this as a great movie. There are moments where it gets emotional and obviously the situation is tragic but it just doesn't kick on for me. I guess many teenagers may flock to see this picture but if you're an average cinema-goer I wouldn't bother.