Five Feet Apart

If Stella Grant ( Haley Lou Richardson ) has a dream, it’s this: she would like to lead a normal life. But she has never had it. Because the teenager suffers from cystic fibrosis and therefore has to be in the hospital all the time and follow numerous rules. This also applies in principle to Will Newman ( Cole Sprouse ), whom she runs into one day there and who suffers from the same illness. Unlike her, however, he doesn’t believe in having everything dictated to him. It quickly crackles between the two and the two get closer – although they are not allowed to do this for medical reasons.

The life of teenagers can be terribly dramatic even under normal circumstances, especially in films: the smallest stumbling block is oversized to the weight of the whole world, and a first love becomes the all-decisive fateful encounter. After all, the protagonists don’t know any better, and neither does the target audience of the same age. It is important to take advantage of this, people like to lay it on thick, and even the smallest banalities are exaggerated.

In “Five Feet Apart” tells the tragic story of two young cystic fibrosis patients who fall in love with each other and yet have to keep their distance due to their illness. It’s calculating in a cynical way and unabashedly using clichés, but thanks to a wonderful duo it’s somehow touching.

• Five Feet Apart