There's a sincerity here that undoes many of its excesses, thanks largely to the grounded chemistry of its leads.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 10, 2020

There's a million books like this and a million movies like this, where people are beautiful -- but they're sick!

| Sep 23, 2019

The plot is believable - right up to the heart-in-the-mouth turns near the end - and the dialogue sounds real. That is a good start in any movie, but in this case it powers on from there because of the A-grade performances of the two young leads.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 5, 2019

Sprouse and Richardson are proven heavyweights in the young-adult pocket of Hollywood, but this soft-hearted teen romance spreads on sugary sentiment too thickly to leave a lasting message.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2019

I cried. I was moved by it... the film was done in a manner that seemed good-hearted.

| Mar 22, 2019

Richardson and Sprouse attack their roles with gusto, never patronising the material.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 22, 2019

[Richardson] surely realises, as Fault's Shailene Woodley did before her, that this is the kind of marshmallow martyrdom that has to be briskly worked through before they let you at the grownup scripts.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 22, 2019

Perhaps the fault lies not in our stars, but in our shameless need for a sappy ending.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 21, 2019

A flawed and deeply contrived story about an impossible love which adds almost nothing to the current trend for Sick-Lit adaptations.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 21, 2019

It's the best tear-jerker in a long time; one box of tissues might not be enough. On a deeper level, it earns some of that emotion through a story based on a real dilemma.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 19, 2019

Like a heart monitor's beep, it fades into the background quickly.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 17, 2019

Strong performances from Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse can't redeem a plot that encourages sacrifice as love-an idea so many teen-focused romances can't seem to advance past.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 16, 2019

While mawkishness should not be a prerequisite for the sick-teens-in-love genre, the popularity of the two in concert has likely convinced many filmmakers that the opposite is true.

| Mar 16, 2019

Due credit... should be given to Sprouse and particularly Richardson for selling all of these reheated tropes to their full potential.

| Mar 15, 2019

...phoney emotions and baloney contrivances...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 15, 2019

Offers a solid showcase for its young leads, Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse, while laboring to flesh out a complete movie.

| Mar 15, 2019

Richardson may be the best thing about this Velveeta-slathered heap of lukewarm cliche, but she is merely a vicarious vehicle for thwarted teenage longing directed at the bad-boy dreamboat heartthrob of countless high-school-girl fantasies.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 15, 2019

A melodrama without any bite to it, Five Feet Apart is clichéd and exploitative.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 15, 2019

That doesn't dampen the work of Richardson and Sprouse, or the romance at the film's center. "Five Feet Apart" works hard for its tears. But it's the honesty of the performances that makes it worth the investment.

| Original Score: B | Mar 15, 2019

It is tempting to dismiss this story as 'sick-lit' but director Justin Baldoni balances the compelling specifics of CF with the larger questions we all face.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 15, 2019