THIS is a romantic drama with both participants afflicted with cystic fibrosis.

What’s cystic fibrosis, do I hear somebody ask? “Five Feet Apart”, Justin Baldoni’s directorial feature film debut, explains it with reliable clarity. If you were born without it, you’re okay. Those who got it genetically may expect to die an uncomfortable death at a relatively young age. Sufferers are vulnerable to bacteria carried in each other’s breath, hence the film’s title, specifying the minimum distance recommended for CF patients to keep away from each other.

Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) has already lost her only sibling (born free of CF) in a climbing accident, so her parents not surprisingly are distraught about the prospect of a life without children. That’s one nasty thing about CF. A family friend had three sons. The middle one is CF-free. The oldest died shortly after an organ transplant. We went to the wedding of the youngest and two years later, to his funeral. A young woman from our pony club told her parents she was ready to have her life support turned off.

About to turn 18, Stella is bright and intelligent. She lives in a special hospital ward in the care of a special nurse (a wonderful performance from Kimberly Hebert Gregory). Stella meets Will (Cole Sprouse) another CF patient. Will has emotional and behavioural issues. Two handsome teenagers, packed with ripe hormones. What else can you expect? They bravely struggle against the injunction not to touch each other.

Another teenager Poe (Moises Arias) also with CF becomes their friend and encourages them with wisdom that stems from his gay sexuality.
It’s a well-made film, already strongly into box office success in the US. As Mikki Daughtrey and Tobias Iaconis’ screenplay leads it through a narrative well supplied with dramatic moments in both families, you might be forgiven for asking yourself: “How will it end?”

In Arthur Hiller’s 1970 weepie “Love Story”, Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal confronted the same issue. “Five Feet Apart” does it more credibly, less lachrymosely. Hollywood style knows how to resolve such predicaments.

At all cinemas