Five Feet Apart Asks You to Open up Your Hearts and Your Tear Ducts

If you had to bet on which actress would be Hollywood’s next big thing you could do a lot worse than putting all your chips on Haley Lu Richardson. She stood out playing side characters in The Edge of Seventeen and Split. And Richardson held her own opposite Regina Hall in 2018’s criminally underseen gem, Support the Girls. I don’t even need to bring up her stellar work alongside John Cho in the indie-darling Columbus – but I will. This woman has the goods, so naturally, I’m excited to check out any project that she headlines. Enter Five Feet Apart.

Directed by Justin Baldoni, Five Feet Apart tells the story of Stella (Richardson) and Will (Cole Sprouse). The two teenage cystic fibrosis patients meet and fall in love during their hospital stays. But here’s the catch: they can’t come within five feet of each other. Their weakened immune systems make sharing a tight space a life-threating game of chicken. Take a look at their forbidden romance in the trailer below:

Between the teen angst and the sappy song playing in the trailer, I know I fall outside this film’s demographic. But I would have said the same thing about To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, one of 2018’s most enjoyable watches. If angsty teen melodramas like The Fault in Our Stars is your kind of thing, then your going to want to mark Five Feet Apart down on your calendar. Haley Lu Richardson makes it worth the price of admission. As for me, I’ll give this one a soft no for now and hold off until it hits streaming services. That is unless Stella and Will become 2019’s Lara Jean and Peter. In that case, I’m all in.

Here’s Five Feet Apart’s official synopsis:

Stella Grant (Haley Lu Richardson) is every bit a seventeen-year-old: she’s attached to her laptop and loves her best friends. But unlike most teenagers, she spends much of her time living in a hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control — all of which is put to the test when she meets an impossibly charming fellow CF patient named Will Newman (Cole Sprouse).

There’s an instant flirtation, though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace that attraction. Further complicating matters is Will’s potentially dangerous rebellion against his ongoing medical treatment. Stella gradually inspires Will to live life to the fullest, but can she ultimately save the person she loves when even a single touch is off limits?

Five Feet Apart arrives in theatres on March 15, 2019.