Five Feet Apart

I'm a 35 year old with CF. I was excited about this movie because any representation is potentially great. But I've seen other CF movies, seen it on TV, and it's usually terribly done. Incorrect nonsense, people are on o2 but climbing hills like it's no big deal, the severity isn't properly shown, etc.

This movie manages to mostly stay away from that. Is it 100% accurate? Of course not. It's still a Hollywood film. It's not a documentary. That being said, this does a better job than any other CF fiction I've ever seen. It includes a lot of the real things that CFers deal with: all our therapies, nebs, vesting, the ports, the G tubes, the o2, surgeries, the isolation, the survivor's guilt, and many others.

A lot of people in the CF community have been up in arms about two CFers getting together despite the bacteria concerns. While I understand the hesitation, I personally know four couples where both spouses had/have CF (had because some have died). We need to look at this as a real situation because it is. There's a lot of isolation in CF, and reaching out to the only people on the planet who can truly understand you is only natural. As long as both people are consenting adults, know the risks, and go for it anyway, we need to respect that.

I appreciate that this movie tackles both the reality of CF and the controversial subject of CFers breaking the six foot rule. This is a very real film, and not once did I feel offended or roll my eyes. Not 100% accurate, no, but I feel seen. I feel represented. Absolutely worth seeing, and i look forward to seeing it again.

Not necessarily from the movie. There was a girl with Cystic Fibrosis in the crowd that completely lost it. The story hit way too home for her. Considering that I dont see how I couldn't give this a rave review.

Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) is a teenager that spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines and she has got everything figured out until she meets Will (Cole Sprouse), another teen with the same terminal and chronic illness. Flirtation quickly turns into broken rules with potentially deadly consequences.

Our Take: If you're in the mood for a good cry in a dark theater, it's a good watch; but it will be just as good when it is on Netflix and can be watched in the comfort of your home with your favorite stuffed animal and a box of Kleenex. Post-Credit Scene: Nope, you can run to the bathroom as soon as they start rolling.

Let us guess: you loved The Fault in Our Stars. So are you in the mood for another sick kids movie? Well, this checks all the boxes. There are kids. The kids are sick. Plus, it tugs on all the appropriate heartstrings. But if you look beyond the trope, what is there?

Here, there's actually a lot to unpack.

This was the directorial debut for Justin Baldoni (of Jane the Virgin fame) and he did a decent job putting the movie together. The cast was the right mix of a popular teenage heartthrob, a kid you remember from some show you used to watch, and a talented girl next door. There's an appropriate amount of chemistry between Richardson and Sprouse. The soundtrack assembled every indie rock song that mentioned medicine or illness, but it was employed in a very tasteful manner. There were a few moments of questionable shakey cam footage that made watching difficult. There was a scene that was purposefully dragged out for the purpose of making the audience uncomfortable in a completely unnecessary way. The dialogue was a bit weak at times, but for characters that you knew had an impending expiration date, they were all fairly well developed. It wasn't perfect, but in the grand scheme of sick kid movies, it certainly ranks and in some ways, set itself apart.

Unlike similar films of the past (A Walk to Remember, The Fault in Our Stars, and Everything Everything to name a few) this one wasn't based on a book (plot twist: there's a book based on it). It is also set primarily at the hospital and over a fairly short period of time, which tightened the narrative in a strange and at times off-putting way that other films have managed to escape. The film stayed fairly true to treatment mechanisms that are available to those with cystic fibrosis thanks to its consultant, the late Claire Wineland, though it fell into the same controversy its predecessors have by casting able-bodied individuals to play diseased and disabled characters. Some have called the film disease-appropriation, but as two people who don't have cystic fibrosis, this film did bring our attention to a disease we'd never heard of. It's not our place to say whether this newfound awareness is good, but we do hope that it has a positive impact by showing a snippet of what some people with CF deal with.

I loved this movie. The story is very beautiful. It gives you hope of life and takes it from you. the Romance in this film is beautiful. My eyes did not bleed because of a film a while ago

I feel compelled to write this review for all of those guys who get dragged along to see some cheezy romance flick by the wife or girlfriend and can barely make it through without trying to duck into the adjacent theater for something action oriented.

That's how I ended up watching this, but honest-to-God . . . I have to give credit where credit is due. I'm usually so cynical about movies that seem so clearly intent on going straight for the heartstrings and forcing every girl in the audience to go for the emergency kleenex stash in the purse. I hate that feeling of being manipulated. "Five Feet Apart" actually works very well on all of the important levels. Cystic fibrosis is not a common disease, and I certainly wasn't familiar with it. But the script and the actors handle the condition with surprising sensitivity. Rather than making it the focus of an emotional trainwreck, no one seems to be working overtime to make you feel sorry for them. Rather, we get to see what seems to be a surprisingly appealing group of teenagers who've accepted the condition in various ways long before the opening scenes of the movie, and they are going to move forward with life without asking for our sympathy.

There is a serious level of chemistry between Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse that has to be one of the most believable pairings I recall in this genre. The growing sparks between them effectively places this truly debilitating genetic condition in just the right context. They don't want your sympathy--they just want a slim chance at happiness. Yes, the teenage girls in the audience were crying rivers at the end . . . but for once . . . I could completely understand it.