Director: Richard Loncraine Starring: Morgan Freeman, Diane Keaton Writer: Charlie Peters | 2/5 5 Flights Up The new film from British director Richard Loncraine may be titled 5 Flights Up, but nothing about this tale of aging love reads as an upgrade for anyone involved. In fact, from its veteran stars to its Emmy-winning director to its screenwriter, I cannot help but look at this as a major step backwards. The film follows Alex, a somewhat renown painter played by Morgan Freeman at his Morgan Freeman-iest, and Ruth, an über positive ex-schoolteacher played by Diane Keaton, as they tackle the real estate market. Worried about changing times and a dwindling money supply, the couple feels like it may be time to move from their NYC home of forty years. It’s a juicy premise, one that I took into consideration when deciding upon a score. The idea of an elderly couple giving away their home and allowing the younger generation to come into their personal space and view their lives’ work, as if they were zoo animals on display, is ripe for reflection and possibly commentary. In reversal, having Alex and Ruth venture through other people’s homes raises other rich questions. The life they could have had? The possibilities you youth and young love? If 5 Flights Up touches any of these themes, it’s with a feather-light touch that you will not feel unless you are expecting it and on the lookout. |
The film opts out of these possibilities and instead offers us broad, silk-thin subplots aimed at specific issues. Throughout the whole film, the characters follow a news story about a young Muslim man who is being hunted for allegedly rigging a truck to blow up on a bridge. The ultimate point of the story strand is to highlight the paranoia and barely hidden racism faced by American minorities. Seeing as how the film is centered around a biracial couple, you can see how this can run parallel to the trials faced by our main characters. It plays out as thin and weak as it sounds.
Just about every one of these issues can be traced back to Charlie Peters script, which, putting it lightly, is the stuff of nightmares. Like one of those sing-a-longs Disney airs for young children, we can basically see the dialogue written across the screen before it is even said. The obvious, trite nature of the film's conversations and interactions will leave you reaching for the fast-forward button. Rather than building his characters through revealing, intimate dialogue, Peters fleshes Alex and Ruth out through a series of flashbacks - though I will admit, Korey Jackson and Claire van der Boom have more sexual chemistry than Freeman and Keaton.
And so we finally find our way to the stars. Again, I will put this as lightly as I can. The two Oscar-winning actors exhibit many of the common symptoms of auto-pilot: zero chemistry, a reliance on reliable character traits they have used successfully in other films, and a reading of the dialogue as if it was their first time looking at it. That last point is the most forgivable, seeing as how Peters did not give them much reason to read it a second time.
There is still pleasure, though, in watching Freeman and Keaton interact onscreen. Their autopilot is as good as many young actors on their best days. It’s just a shame that they come off as semi-close friends in the film, as opposed to lovers with nearly a half-decade under the belts. 5 Flights Up succumbs to a similar fate. I wanted passion, longing, and regret. What I got was light charm scored by the sounds of Hallmark.
(Available on iTunes)
Just about every one of these issues can be traced back to Charlie Peters script, which, putting it lightly, is the stuff of nightmares. Like one of those sing-a-longs Disney airs for young children, we can basically see the dialogue written across the screen before it is even said. The obvious, trite nature of the film's conversations and interactions will leave you reaching for the fast-forward button. Rather than building his characters through revealing, intimate dialogue, Peters fleshes Alex and Ruth out through a series of flashbacks - though I will admit, Korey Jackson and Claire van der Boom have more sexual chemistry than Freeman and Keaton.
And so we finally find our way to the stars. Again, I will put this as lightly as I can. The two Oscar-winning actors exhibit many of the common symptoms of auto-pilot: zero chemistry, a reliance on reliable character traits they have used successfully in other films, and a reading of the dialogue as if it was their first time looking at it. That last point is the most forgivable, seeing as how Peters did not give them much reason to read it a second time.
There is still pleasure, though, in watching Freeman and Keaton interact onscreen. Their autopilot is as good as many young actors on their best days. It’s just a shame that they come off as semi-close friends in the film, as opposed to lovers with nearly a half-decade under the belts. 5 Flights Up succumbs to a similar fate. I wanted passion, longing, and regret. What I got was light charm scored by the sounds of Hallmark.
(Available on iTunes)