Grant Dillard
Staff writer
“Five Feet Apart” is yet another young-adult romance film focusing on two sick teenagers who fall in love. Following movies such as “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Everything Everything” and “Midnight Sun,” this film takes its place in a sub-genre that may as well be dubbed “Terminal Teenage Romance.” Coming after many similar stories, does “Five Feet Apart” stand out? Or does it blend in with other films in the sub-genre?
Stella Grant (Haley Lu Richardson) is a cystic fibrosis patient who has a YouTube vlog channel as a means to try and cope with living in the hospital. While there, she meets Will Newman (Cole Sprouse) another CF patient who’s at the hospital for a medical trial to get rid of a lung infection. At first, Grant doesn’t entirely like Newman, as he tends to skip a handful of treatments and doesn’t take the overall medical process seriously due to not caring whether or not he lives. But over time, as the two start to interact more and more, his mindset changes, and the two begin to fall in love; despite the fact that they have to stay five feet apart in order to avoid infection and stay alive.
In what’s often the case for terminal teenage romance films, it’s the dynamic between the two leads that carry the film as a whole, and this film is no exception. The relationship between Stella and Will, while nothing groundbreaking, feels very natural, as it’s easy to believe that these two people who don’t exactly like each other at first slowly start to grow closer as the film progresses. Their chemistry is also a testament as to how it’s possible for two individuals to fall in love, even without any physical contact. Their interesting personalities and general mindsets are more than enough. Richardson and Sprouse do really good work in their individual roles, in what’s sure to be highlights of their professional careers.
While the film is quite enjoyable for the most part, more on that later, there’s still a handful of tiring romance movie clichés present in this film; such as the period of time where everyone’s split apart and upset only to come back together a few minutes later. Or even a scene where Will asks Stella if he could draw her, almost like the film’s screenwriter deliberately copied and pasted a scene from “Titanic.” But thankfully, these clichés are few and far between, and not spread out throughout the film’s entire running time.
“Five Feet Apart” is fine enough throughout its first two acts, but it’s the third act where the film goes off the rails and violently crashes and burns. After a tragic event happens, Stella decides that she wants to leave the hospital to see the Christmas lights with Will, despite the fact that being outside would be very life-threatening for the both of them. What follows is a series of dangerous and downright moronic events that could have easily been avoided had the two of them stayed put at the hospital. As insane as Stella’s plan is, this would be somewhat understandable if there was no hope that she would ever be healed. However, there does end up being a source of hope back at the hospital; in fact, Will even tells Stella about it and that they should go back. But because Stella is so determined to see the Christmas lights, something that she would have the rest of her life to see, she refuses to leave; which results in a perilous dilemma that could have been easily avoided. For someone who knows most of the ins and outs of her disease, one would think that Stella wouldn’t be this brainless in this particular situation.
For the first two acts, “Five Feet Apart” is decent enough; having its fair share of clichés, but still having a solid chemistry between the two young actors. But it’s the third act that sadly ruins the overall experience due to the astounding idiocy that happens onscreen. It’s because of this that the film isn’t worth seeing in theaters. If anything the best way to watch this film would be renting it at Redbox, stopping at the point before Will and Stella leave the hospital, and then coming up with their own ending; because anything would be better than the ending that’s presented here. Otherwise, don’t even bother.