FIVE FEET APART
2 1/2 STARS OUT OF 5
I was blessed to go see this film on Wednesday night (It comes out Friday) with a screening with a Q and A with the stars and director afterwards.
This film was compared, before it came out, to Fault In Our Stars, and I really liked Fault.
Five Feet is well acted by the three main characters:
Haley Lu Richardson as Stella
Cole Sprouse as Will
Moises Arias as Poe
They are all wonderful here as patients in a hospital suffering from Cystic Fibrosis.
I am a big fan of Richardson, I have seen her in many films and she always shines, and she really does here also. If you are going to see this film, even after this review, it should be to see her performance.
I feel mean panning the script because it brings to light Cystic Fibrosis and the struggle of living with the disease. However I have to be honest and review the film as I see it. I know it was based on a book. Some books just do not make a good movie. I did not read the book, maybe in the book we heard the inner thoughts of the characters and that is hard to bring to a film.
So the script:
It had no movement. The script had no character development for Will and Poe who are important in this film. There was one good conversation between 2 characters near a pool and that lasted about 5 minutes.We really rely on Stella's You Tube videos to get her personality. When she is not on You Tube we just know she is sick and is OCD. It is not the actors fault, it is just sterile as the hospital. I wanted conversations like in The Before Sunrise movies, where they walk around and just talk. Here the characters do not communicate they almost just growl. Yes I know they are ill, but again it does not work as a movie. So at the end I think it was suppose to be emotional but...nah.
In Fault the characters moved around. House to house....even to different continents. Here, in Five Feet, they were just in one location and it made the movie, again, sterile as the hospital they were in. Now before you send me messages about but they had a disease that they had to stay apart and in the hospital. Agreed...however I am saying it does not make a good movie, maybe a better book.
Holes. Holes. Holes:
No cameras in the hospital...not keeping track of patients in hallways????
Lighting candles in a hospital??? Which happens I am sure but lighting candles and having a fancy dinner and no one in the hospital knows???
Someone is having a important surgery. So the staff, family, and very sick patient decorate outside/ Huh?
Well I split it down middle with 2 1/2 stars because it is well acted, and I learned a lot about the disease. It just does not make a great movie. Maybe watch the movie then read the book?
As for the Q and A? It was interesting to hear about the work put in the film to learn about Cystic Fibrosis. The director Justin Baldoni was all in. It also seemed the characters were more appealing off camera as we saw the filming or making of. I wish we saw more of that in the movie.
Well as always thanks for your time as always.
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