IT's the “Love Story” for today's young cinemagoers, comparable to that Ryan O'Neal-Ali MacGraw 1970 weeper with no happily-ever-after ending.
In Five Feet Apart, both the leads — played by Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson — have life-threatening diseases. And they fall in love… in the hospital.
But I can't remember the soundtrack, unlike Love Story, with Where Do I Begin by Shirley Bassey/Andy Wilson.
Some people might find more similarities with The Fault In Our Stars (2014, both leads have cancer) or the 2016 weeper Me Before You (suicide by the lead male) or last year's Midnight Sun (she can't leave the house in the day).
Maudlin lot, this young generation, come to think of it, given the spate of hard-luck love tales on the silver screen from 2000.
But Five Feet Apart does highlight cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs, pancreas, and other organs. CF causes an excessive buildup of mucus in the body's organs, often resulting in death.
Director Justin Baldoni met the late Claire Wineland, a CF patient known for her candid videos about life with the disease.
She was the one who explained that people living with CF can't get closer than two metres because they could pass on dangerous bacteria to people with CF. The movie, Baldoni's feature film directorial debut, is dedicated to Wineland.
So there you have the inspiration for the movie — what does love have to look like, without the ability to touch each other?
For Will (Sprouse, Riverdale TV series) and Stella (Richardson, Split), it's heartbreaking. But they seem to be in a happy place — the hospital.
The caring staff includes a Dr Hamid, played by Parminder Nagra of Bend It Like Beckham and E.R. fame.
The hospital feels like a school where the kids also hang out, to skateboard along the corridors like Poe (Moises Arias, Pitch Perfect 3), to cook up something special from the kitchen when the staff is away. That's a good thing, when you are sick.
For more kicks, Stella visits the newborns when she needs to take a break. The teens also climb stairs a lot.
Kudos to the director of photography Frankie G. De Marco and production designer Anthony T. Fanning for creating a place that feels like home for the sick and the cinemagoers.
To see these teenagers struggle with their daily medical routine is eye-opening. It means airway clearance therapy, caloric maintenance which requires a cocktail of pills to help digestion, and may involve a G-tube (feeding tube, which both Stella and Will have), and other medication to prevent or fight infections.
People with advanced CF, like Stella, may consider a lung transplant, while some others like Will are eligible for newer medications that help correct the underlying cause of CF, and may participate in clinical trials.
With all that going on every day, Stella decides to not live for the medication but to be a fighter not defined by her illness. Which includes choices like dating Will.
Five Feet Apart is about everyday human courage, and the need to reach out to people around you, even it’s for a hug.
To me, it's more than a love story. But these star-struck lovers — without a happy ending in sight — will bound to make you cry. Just like Love Story. Sigh. Bring the hanky or tissues.
NOW SHOWING
Five Feet Apart
Directed by Justin Baldoni
Starring Cole Sprouse, Haley Lu Richardson, Moises Arias, Parminder Nagra
Duration: 116 minutes
Rating: PG13