Terminally ill romance films featuring handsome men and beautiful women with chronic diseases have been tried and tested, and they can always abuse the audience to cry. Since a protagonist suffering from a terminal illness can make the audience shout that the tissue is not enough, then, if both the male and female protagonists are sick!
Just like the domestic film "Send You a Little Red Flower" that caused plagiarism controversy at the beginning of the year and similar terminal love tear gas films such as "The Fault in the Fortunes", "Five Feet of Heaven" copied the plot formula of this type of movie, telling the romantic story of two cystic fibrosis patients who fell in love during hospitalization.
Referring to such a narrative routine, we naturally know how the story will develop. At first, the film didn't seem to have any obvious hard wounds, but because we quickly grasped the gist, we lost more and more the audience's favor as we continued to repeat familiar elements later in the film. Instead of going its own way, Five Feet Away takes a lot of time to remind viewers of the film's gimmick— that cystic fibrosis patients must stay 6 feet apart to avoid bacterial cross-infection. As the rebellious actor Will (Cole Spoos) aptly exasperates in a scene, "Keep a distance of six feet." I see. ”
However, this fatalistic plot is so provasive that it is even disgusting, and almost every scene and every character reminds us of what dangerous situations can arise if the male and female protagonists come into contact. So, after being severely scolded by nurse Barbara (Kimberly Herbert Gregory), Will begins to avoid the heroine Stella (Hayley Lu Richardson). After a painful struggle, Stella made a manifesto on her YouTube channel claiming she had "stolen a foot" from cystic fibrosis. Her remarks seem to be very philosophical, but in fact, they are completely illogical, just to echo the title of the movie.
Remember the saying that the most distant distance is when two people are together but can't touch it. For this sentence, there are many visual representations in "Five Feet of Heaven". For example, the two are on one side of the hospital porch, or at the end of a billiard club (5 feet long), and of course, there is a deep gaze through the glass window, and the film gives full play to the gimmick of "five feet of heaven". However, it is too late. The novelty of the clubs quickly faded, and even in the pool scene, it would be awkwardly reminiscent of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Even people who are concerned about cystic fibrosis are wary of these contents. While they were happy that the film featured cystic fibrosis patients, they feared that the protagonists touching each other's medicines and walking together without masks might mislead some members of the public. If not handled properly, this idealistic creation can have far-reaching implications.
While both Richardson and Sparks do a good job of giving the characters delicate emotions, their families and nurses seem too functional, resulting in the story being confined to just two. Perhaps portraying Barbara as a more severe and kind nurse will help elevate the seriousness of the film in dealing with this serious condition, thus making the story more realistic. Only the gentle image of Moises Arias, who plays Stella's best friend Po, is eye-catching, and his character story not only complements the main story with comedic humor, but also interacts with the development of the main plot.
"Five Feet of Heaven" is a gimmick, but it is too cheesy to accurately show the seriousness and urgency of the cystic fibrosis treatment process, and of course, the director seems to have no intention of making a profound film. Although it is still enough to touch people's hearts, as a terminally ill love movie, it will not have much impact.