Based on the novel by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis “Five Feet Apart” is another movie to add to the teen romance and drama collection. The movie was released on March 15, 2019, and was directed by Justin Baldoni.
“Five Feet Apart” shines light onto a less known illness, cystic fibrosis, which affects the lungs and digestive system. Two teenagers, Will (Cole Sprouse) and Stella (Haley Lu Richardson), have been living with this disease.
“The movie showed how much they all struggled and information about [cystic fibrosis] and how they continued to live their life despite having cystic fibrosis,” sophomore Mackenzie Oakes. “[It’s] shining light on the illness.”
The movie begins with Stella making YouTube videos about her illness and hanging out with her friends in her hospital room. She then meets another cystic fibrosis patient, Will, and the two quickly start to develop a friendship and later feelings for each other.
Unfortunately, patients with cystic fibrosis have the “six feet apart rule” that protects the patient from catching Burkholderia Cenocepacia, a bacterial infection. Because of this, when Stella and Will go on a date together in the hospital, they must make sure to stay six feet apart at all times.
Soon it is revealed that the reason Will is in the hospital is for a medication trial. Stella notices that he isn’t following his regiments and the two make a deal. If Will follows his medication schedule, Will would be allowed to draw portraits of Stella.
The title of the movie comes into play when Stella makes a new video on her YouTube channel, saying that she wants to get an extra foot back from the six-foot rule, making it a five-foot rule, because she felt she was living her life to strictly and she wanted something in return for all she has lost out on.
Stella and Will fall deeper in love, but struggle to have a real relationship because are constantly forced to stay a certain distance away from each other.
There is finally hope for Stella when she gets a call that there are a set of lungs waiting for her; she undergoes the surgery with Will waiting outside the room for her.
Will the medication trial for Will work? Will Stella’s transplant help her survive?
In this case, the movie is unlike many others in the teen romance genre because “Five Feet Apart” has a different ending; a lot more is left to the viewers’ imagination than typical movies.
