Movie Review: Five Feet Apart *SPOILERS*

Over the weekend I saw the movie Five Feet Apart, so I thought it would be interesting to write an honest review about the movie. *SPOILERS AHEAD*

Five Feet Apart isn't a movie I would typically go watch but I decided to go watch it (on opening weekend nonetheless) for a few reasons; first because Cole Sprouse was in it and I'm a huge Riverdale and Suite Life of Zack and Cody fan, second because Riza (my little sister) really wanted to go watch it and I like going to see movies with her, and lastly because I had the intent of going to watch Captain Marvel again (that didn't happen sadly) and thought it would be nice to watch both movies on the same day. With that being said if it wasn't for these reasons I don't think I would have gone to see the movie. My initial expectations going into the movie were that it would be a Fault In Our Stars knock off where they changed lung cancer to cystic fibrosis and also that all the teenage girls (especially my little sister) were going to leave the movie crying their eyes out while I as usual didn't shed a single tear. Also worth mentioning before I move on to the actual review part of this is that I haven't read the book the movie is based on yet so I can't make any comparisons. 

*LAST SPOILER WARNING*

Unlike my Captain Marvel movie review (check it out on my Girl Power page if you haven't read it yet) I'm not going to retell every detail of the plot, because I don't want this to be too lengthy and because unlike with Captain Marvel I don't think it is necessary to mention every detail of the plot. 

The movie starts out with us being introduced to the character Stella played by Hayley Lu Richardson, we see her in the hospital saying goodbye to her friends who are going on a trip, we see a little bit of the treatments and medicine she undergoes to keep her Cystic Fibrosis under control, we learn about her OCD when it comes to her medicine cart and life in general and we find out that she is a Youtuber who makes videos about CF. Toward the beginning of the movie we also meet Stella's best friend Poe another CF patient played my Moises Arias. 

As the movie goes on we meet a CF patient named Will played by Cole Sprouse, who is moving into the hospital take part in a new medication trial. I could go super in depth to the plot but honestly like I said before that isn't necessary basically Stella and Will meet, they dislike each other at first, Stella freaks out because Will doesn't take his treatments seriously, Will begins to take his treatments seriously for Stella, Will watches Stella's Youtube videos, begins to like her, she begins to like him and suddenly they are madly in love with each other. The problem with them being in love is that CF patients can easily contract each others bacterial infections so they must stay at least six feet away from each other to reduce this risk. 

Eventually Stella decides she wants to stop living for her treatments and do take her treatments so she can live, she also decides she wants to take one foot back and instead of staying six feet apart from Will she's only going to stay five feet apart. We also learn that Stella had a sister who died, and that has been contributing to her control problems, because she wasn't there when her sister died.  After that a small date happens and some other scenes that aren't vital to the plot. After the date Poe and Stella throw a surprise party for Will's birthday. Poe cooks for the party and the three CF patients are also quite close (closer than 6 feet in my opinion) throughout the entire party. Even though I should've seen it coming the next thing that happens the next day shocks me, and Poe unexpectedly dies. 

At this point Stella is an emotional mess having dealt with the death of her sister and now the death of her best friend Poe. After crying and destroying her hospital room she decides she wants to leave and go out into the city to see the lights that her and her sister would always look at from the window of her hospital room (very Rapunzel in Tangled style.. get it?). She invites Will to go with her and after some reluctancy he joins her. While Stella and Will are heading toward the lights the hospital receives word that Stella's new lungs have finally arrived and she's ready for a lung transplant, only to realize she is missing. The nurse Barbara texts Stella, but Stella ignores the texts and continues her journey to the lights. 

Along the way Stella and Will stop when they see an ice skating rink (or maybe just frozen water... not quite sure) and they slide around on the ice. At some point during their fun, Will finds out about the lung transplant and convinces Stella to return to the hospital. Stella doesn't want to but eventually gives in and decides to go. As they are about to leave she falls off a wall and onto the ice, which breaks and she underwater. Will is able to drag her out from the water, but her has no choice to give her mouth to mouth in order for her to live, risking spreading his bacterial infection and her dying either way. He ends up saving her, and ambulances go for both of them since his lungs aren't doing to well after saving her. 

Stella is awake at this point, but refusing to get the lung transplant until Will asks her to get the transplant for him. While she is getting the transplant we find out that Will's medicine trial isn't going well. We also start to see signs that he is going to transfer to another hospital at the suggestion of nurse Barbara to avoid putting Stella in more dangerous situations. We find out Stella's transplant went well and she didn't catch the bacterial infection from Will. We see Will standing outside her hospital window where he's recreated the lights Stella wanted so badly to see, he calls her to say a final goodbye and leaves. That is basically how the movie ends. 

There was lot I didn't like about this movie (sorry but it's true), I'll start out with what I did like though. Poe's character is one of the best parts of the movie he brings humor that is natural and not cheesy or forced and even though he doesn't get much screen time I think his character was the most unpredictable yet likable. Also bonus points to Poe because I had no idea that Moises Arias was in the movie even after seeing the trailers and I hadn't seen him in anything since Hannah Montana. Another thing I really liked was that as far as I've read the movie accurately portrayed CF and according to interviews both Hayley and Cole they did extensive research to accurately portray CF so that is a definite plus. I like that the characters had CF and not Cancer, because it's nice that they are bringing awareness to the disease. Another thing I really liked was the character of nurse Barbara she was also quite likable and humorous not to mention she's what I imagine a nurse working in a long-term hospital facility with children or teenagers would be like. Most of all I liked that the movie brought awareness to a disease that a lot of people don't know bout like CF, as far as I've heard based on youtube videos by people who have CF and articles about the movie the main characters of the movie researched CF extensively and the disease was portrayed accurately in the movie. If that is the best thing about the movie then I am satisfied with that. 

Something I have conflicting feelings about is that neither of the main characters died (sounds harsh I know). I expected one of the main characters to die, so it was kind of nice for the movie to not be predictable and it wasn't a complete The Fault In Our Stars copt for this reason. I also liked that although Poe was one of my favorite characters his death was unexpected. At the same time I think the movie could have explored the idea of grieving and the dangers of CF patient being to close if one of the two main characters would have died. I also felt like both characters being alive left the ending to open, and as a result the movie lacked closure. 

There was also a lot I didn't like about the movie. The first thing I didn't like was the lack of depth in regards to the various relationships. The most fleshed out relationship of the movie wasn't even the one you would expect it was the relationship between Stella and Poe, because we got a bit of a backstory and it felt very believable. Stella and Will's relationship felt too rushed and lack of touch or closeness aside lacked any real connection. Stella's relationship with her sister also felt random and like a subplot that either needed to have more depth or should have been omitted from the movie altogether. I also didn't like the way they went about the characters not being able to touch each other, because during the big moments of the movie like when Will saves Stella at the end they do touch, which defeats the purpose of the not touching plot. Instead I would have preferred to see more of a connection that focused around the concept of staying a distance from each other. I also didn't like the scene where Stella falls through the ice. For starters the same thing happened to Cheryl Blossom at the end of Riverdale's first season and we saw a trailer for a movie with the same plot (a little boy falls through ice and is expected to die) before the movie. Aside from being a totally unoriginal scene what's the point of a character with an already serious condition to almost die by falling through ice. The last thing I didn't like was that the emotions didn't always feel believable, it wasn't the actors fault but it had a lot to do with the script. My little sister cries at even the smallest sign of a movie being sad and she left the movie without a single tear, so if the movie couldn't convince her of the characters emotions I'm not sure it would be believable to anyone. 

Overall the movie had good moments and good actors in fact it even had good characters like Poe and nurse Barbara but it wasn't my personal taste in movies. If you're someone who doesn't like somewhat cheesy sad romantic movies, I'd recommend you sit this one out or at the very least wait until they release it on Netflix or Hulu or something. If you do like this kind of movie, you're a Cole Sprouse fan, you read the book and want to see the movie or you just love going to see movies then by all means go see this movie. It definitely was not the worst movie I've ever seen, and maybe I'd consider watching it again if I had nothing to do but with that being said the movie as a whole could have been better.