my review of Five Feet Apart
“If I’m going to die, I’d like to actually live first.”
-Five Feet Apart, Rachael Lippincott
*Attention! This post contains spoilers for the movie Five Feet Apart!!! So if you’re someone who hates spoilers, I suggest you skip this blog. Thank you*
Last week, I took a deep breath of air (no pun intended), and bought a ticket to see Five Feet Apart, the movie that has overwhelmed the CF community. I was hesitant at first because I’ve heard a lot of negative reviews of this movie. I also didn’t want any deep seated emotions of mine that I bottle up on a daily basis to come pouring out. But alas, I saw it.
Now for those of you who don’t know, Five Feet Apart is a fictional love story between two CF patients in the hospital. It’s the first Hollywood movie of its kind to showcase my disease in the limelight. When I tell people I have Cystic Fibrosis, not many people know what that means, even though it’s a struggle I deal with on a daily basis. So this movie should help with that, theoretically, depending on how many people see it.
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic lung disorder which causes lung infections, difficulty breathing, and lands us in the hospital quite a lot. It is not contagious to other people, because it is a genetic disease. However, if one of us has a lung infection such as pneumonia or b.cepacia, and we come in to contact with another CF person…they do not want our viruses, and vice versa. Thus the premise of the story: all CF patients must remain six feet apart in order to prevent cross-contamination. Stella meets Will in the hospital; they both have CF, and predictably, they fall in love. Her compromise with Will is that she’s willing to steal one foot from CF in order to be closer to him, hence the name Five Feet Apart. *roll credits*
Love stories always have to have a reason to keep the couple apart and in this case, that means literally apart. Because of their vulnerability to infection, CF patients have to stay at least six feet from each other. They are like Romeo and Juliet if the Montagues were bacteria and the Capulets were a set of new lungs.
Though this movie is riddled with inaccuracies (I’ll get into that in a minute), it’s mainly a story about love & loss, like Romeo & Juliet. It’s a story to provoke ethos, which I understand. It’s also a story which highlights the terrible consequences of this disease and brings it to the viewers attention, making them more aware, which I appreciate. So I get that the overall story has made a positive effect towards the CF community. I might have even shed a tear or two when Will plugged in the Christmas lights outside of Stella’s room post-lung transplant. Or the part where Cole Sprouse sings to her before her surgery *chokes up* …It moved me, I will admit.
However, let us begin with everything I found wrong with the movie:
(These opinions are coming from my personal experience! Situations might differ depending on the patient and their treatment plan!)
While the movie did showcase that CF patients are very responsible with their medications and treatment plans, I have never, ever in my life, had my whole entire med cart in my hospital room at any time. Respiratory has to come in to give me the nebulizers, and the nurses come in with my drugs at the appropriate times of the day. The only med I keep in my room and can take on my own are my enzymes. How the hell do they have their own med carts, huh??
I’m also never in the hospital for drug trials like Will was. Usually your CF doctor knows the hospital is riddled with infection & MRSA everywhere, and will do anything to keep you out of the hospital! If I am involved in a drug trial, it is done in the convenience of my own home with visits to my doctors office every now and then.
Speaking of MRSA, DO THEY NOT HAVE MRSA IN THIS MOVIE? ALL CF PATIENTS SEEM TO HAVE MRSA. I always have contact precautions when I’m in the hospital, meaning, any visitors or nurses must gown, mask, and glove up before entering my room because of my history with MRSA. I’m also in quarantine because of this, meaning, I CANNOT JUST LEAVE THE HOSPITAL AT ANY TIME WHENEVER I WANT LIKE THEY DO IN THE MOVIE. I DO NOT HAVE FREE REIN OF THE HOSPITAL TO ROAM ABOUT AS I PLEASE. I’M STUCK IN MY ROOM 24/7! They’re allowed to go to the cafeteria??? And the gym??? WTH!!! (Can you tell this one made me a little angry?)
They do show that Will & Stella have their ports accessed to receive IV medicine, along with wearing oxygen full-time, and feeding tubes. However, there’s this ONE SCENE that really grinds my gears. When Will & Stella go on their “first date” in the hospital, they go to the pool (also, there’s pools in the hospital???) and they JUMP IN the pool!!!! HELLO?? Where are their ports? Aren’t they accessed? You’re not supposed to get them wet, lest they get infected!!! That’s why I can’t shower normally when I have my port accessed or lay out in the sun in case I sweat. NO moisture must go under that tape. AHGGGGGG I cringed the entire time.
The last major problem I had was when Stella receives her phone call for new lungs, her and Will had just gone to the park outside of the hospital (um, hello, excuse me, WHAT? anyways..) Stella ends up falling through the ice (DUH) and Will saves her by performing CPR. She is then rushed into surgery for her new lungs. -____-
HELLO She would NEVER be allowed to go through the trauma of two organ transplants after the trauma of falling through the ice. NEVER. A doctor would never risk her health or the health of those two fresh lungs she’s about to receive. AUHFJSCKKBHGHFKJK
Oh, one more thing, I forgot… they didn’t cough enough. lol
All in all, I still enjoyed the movie. It did not send me spiraling into oblivion like I thought it might. It also did not make me depressed for them at all, because I laughed too much at all their goofs and inadequacies. I did fall in love with their love, so I still recommend seeing it, especially if you do not know a lot about Cystic Fibrosis. It is an accurate overview of our symptoms and daily struggles and emotions we tend to embrace. It does highlight how it can effect our mental health, living in and out of the hospital and watching people around us die.
In true Fault in Our Stars fashion, it does leave you hanging with the preconception that this disease does get worse over time, and eventually all of us with CF will die from it. So can a movie like this really have a happy ending in any scenario? I don’t think so. But still worth the $12 ticket.
If you happen to watch this movie, and feel moved by the story in any way, and want to know more about CF (more than I can tell you on my melancholic blog) please visit https://www.cff.org/Get-Involved/Donate/ to donate to the research fund for people like me to live longer, healthier lives.
Also, let me know what you think of the movie. These are my thoughts and opinions coming from a biased, already diseased standpoint. You might have a completely different opinion about movies that highlight illness. It might be totally boring to you; who knows? I know I’m pretty boring myself, so if you’ve made it this far through my blog, I commend you.
As always,
-memento mori
