5 Flights Up

"Struggling artist Alex (Morgan Freeman) and retired teacher, Ruth (Diane Keaton) have been living in the same New York apartment, happily married, for over forty years. But now, their old bones too frail to cope with five flights of stairs, they’re selling up. Cue a disproportionately large amount of screen time given over to real estate offers and counter-offers. That’s pretty much it plot-wise. Except for Dorothy, their cute old dog, whose ailing health leads to an expensive veterinary visit. Oh, and a satirical background breaking news story, involving the media getting, in Alex’s words, “worked up over nothing”, and driving down Brooklyn property prices with their terrorist scaremongering."

"What a pleasure to see a simple, finely tuned dramedy about real adults with real emotions in a real-life situation."

"What begins as a sweetly sentimental story ends up being cloyingly melodramatic."

"Charmingly played by its well-cast, ever watchable leads."

"Keaton and Freeman make for a pleasant couple in Richard Loncraine's conflict-free virgin-cocktail of a movie."

"If you're looking for a film completely free of loud explosions, raised voices or anything actually happening, you can't go wrong with this fusty New York fairytale."

"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."

"The movie stays afloat with its sneaky perceptiveness, dealing in how real estate's grand mysteries alter the lives of those trying to navigate it."

"What a pleasure to see a simple, finely tuned dramedy about real adults with real emotions in a real-life situation."

"Good casting gives this amiable work curb appeal, but the script is a bit of fixer-upper."