Five Feet Apart

Easily dismissed as just another "disease of the week" movie, Five Feet Apart is actually much, much better than that. It's the tale of two teenagers with the progressive lung disease cystic fibrosis. Perky Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) is in hospital hoping for a lung transplant. Moody Will (Cole Sprouse) is in the same hospital, awaiting the results of an experimental drugs programme that could cure a secondary infection fatal to CF patients. Predictably, they fall in love. But the highly contagious nature of their illness means they must always stay six feet apart. Its reduction to the five feet of the title (both of the film and the book it's based on) is their sole concession to intimacy. Both leads are good, especially Richardson. And the film deftly walks that tightrope between sentiment and soppiness, slipping over into slush only in the final few minutes. The subject matter won't suit all tastes, but lovers of weepies of the first water will lap it up; there won't be a dry eye in the house.