About 5 Flights Up

Name : Gerry O / Alias : Kid First
From the story line, it may seem that this film will be boring to kids. But, when I started watching this film I fell in love with it. Morgan Freeman's perfect timing of jokes and Diane Keeton's wonderful and priceless emotions make this film entertaining and heartfelt from the very start to the last second. It is a bit hard to say what the main genre is. Of course, there is a lot of romance between the two characters, Alex (Morgan Freeman) and Ruth (Diane Keeton), there is also that funny side that makes it all that more enjoyable. And, there is still a serious dramatic side which keeps you on the edge of your seat till the end. The story starts when an elderly couple, Ruth and Alex, live in a high up, massive apartment in New York City, Brooklyn actually. However, the five flight of stairs they need to take is getting more and more challenging so they decide to move to a location with an elevator. To add to the challenges, their dog is in the hospital undergoing treatment for spinal injury. The director, Richard Loncraine makes this movie feel authentic and rustic and also shows how current society stereotypes elderly people, how they truly feel about it and how wrong it is. The cast is wonderful and the acting is just superior with serious and comedy scenes mixed together and standing out all the time. I also like how they lightly touch upon problems of the past as well as problems of today. For example, Ruth and Alex got married in a time when bi- racial couples were not welcomed with open arms. Then it shows how today a gay couple is making an offer on a house. They submit it along with a note telling how they tried to adopt a child and finally were able to adopt one. It is something Ruth and Alex wanted to do when they were younger but were denied. My favorite scene is when they have an open house to sell their apartment and a huge crowd of people comes through, looking at everything and touching everything. Alex doesn't like it but Ruth tries to see the positive side but fails. I like that scene because it shows how the couple's life isn't perfect and also makes the film feel very real. Not only this moment does that but many others as well. This film has perhaps several moments of adult content but none that is too mature. I recommend it to kids ages 10 to18 and give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Name : Stephen Holden / Alias : New York Times
The lead performances are so perfectly in sync that Alex and Ruth really feel like an old married couple who know each other's foibles and cherish every tic.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
It's good to see first-rate artists devoted to a film that doesn't pander to an unsophisticated audience with a thirst for violence and smut.

Name : Gary Goldstein / Alias : Los Angeles Times
What a pleasure to see a simple, finely tuned dramedy about real adults with real emotions in a real-life situation.

Name : John Hartl / Alias : Seattle Times
The movie ends just as you expected it to end, and there are almost no surprises along the way.

Name : John Anderson / Alias : Newsday
A couple of pros, playing attractive characters in an amiable yet topical story.

Name : Pete Vonder Haar / Alias : Village Voice
What starts as a somewhat charming - if prosaic - story of love in the time of gentrification inexplicably spends most of its third act mired in the finer points of apartment hunting, like a tastefully lit HGTV show.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
5 Flights Up is a sweet film with a few nicely turned lines, some good jokes, and some very lovely dialogue. But it's not much more than fluff and air.

Name : Mike D'Angelo / Alias : AV Club
If 5 Flights Up is worth seeing, it's primarily for the pleasure of Keaton and Freeman's company, plus maybe for some tips on buying and selling an apartment.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton have unexpectedly great chemistry in this warm and funny comedy about a couple who contemplate leaving a walk-up apartment in Brooklyn they've occupied for their entire 40-year marriage.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
What begins as a sweetly sentimental story ends up being cloyingly melodramatic.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
"5 Flights Up" is far from perfect, but it's also undeniably touching.

Name : Graham Fuller / Alias : New York Daily News
Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman are pleasantly entertaining in "5 Flights Up." But the movie's far too pleasant for far too long.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Sometimes you see a play and you can imagine it being a movie. Sometimes you see a small movie like this, and you can imagine it working better as an intimate stage play.

Name : Peter Keough / Alias : Boston Globe
The duo provide a bit of wit and warmth amid the contrived subplots and the self-satisfied moralism.

Name : Isabella Biedenharn / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Based on Jill Ciment's wry novel Heroic Measures, the film is at its best when it sticks with the everyday .