Review of 5 Flights Up (2014) by Leon B — 02 Oct 2015

Review:

This is a very basic movie about an elderly couple, played my Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton, who have decided to sell there apartment in New York after living there for 40 years. With the stairs becoming hard to handle because of there age, they hire an agent who gets clients to come to see there apartment and there's soon a bidding war between various parties. With there dog in hospital and the troubles of finding another apartment, there love is still as strong as ever and they soon realise that there is no reason why they have to make such a drastic move. The chemistry between Freeman and Keaton was brilliant and it's about time that Hollywood made an elderly film about an multi racial couple. The problem that I found with the film was that the concept seemed to go round and round in circles and nothing major really happened throughout the film. It was nice watching how close the couple was after so many years but for entertainment, I found it quite dull. I can't say a bad word about the performances, which were extremely believable but I must admit, I did get a bit bored after a while. Anyway, it's worth a watch just to see these two veteran actors side by side but it dries up very quickly. Average!

Round-Up:

Morgan Freeman, 78, has really done it all in his long movie career which started on a TV series called Another World in 1964. Although he has starred in many movies, he really came to light after his performance as a high school teacher in Lean On Me in 1989. Straight after that, Driving Miss Daisy came out and there was no turning back for Freeman after that. He lost out to Daniel Day-Lewis for the Academy Award in a leading role category in 1990 but he became a household name with movies like Glory, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, Unforgiven, Shawshank Redemption, Outbreak, Se7en, Amistad, Bruce Almighty, Million Dollar Baby, the Bucket List and the Batman franchise. His unique voice and calm demeanour put him in the same category of classic actors like Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson and his subtle style really worked in this movie alongside Diane Keaton, who isn't looking bad at 69. After starring in the multi award winning Godfather movies, Keaton chose to stick to light comedies like Baby Boom, the Father of the Bride franchise, First Wives Club, Somethings Gotta Give, the Family Stone and the many movies that she starred in, alongside Woody Allen which include the famous Manhattan. Together, these actors showed natural professionalism in this movie and the director Richard Loncraine, chose the actors well. After directing Wimbledon, Richard III with Ian McKellen, Firewall with Harrison Ford and My One and Only with Renee Zellweger, he could have done a better job with the storyline because it's not every day that you can get Morgan Freeman on board. With that aside, it is short and sweet and the chemistry was top form.

Budget: $1million.

Worldwide Gross: $2million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their emotional dramas about an elderly couple who are trying to sell there apartment in New York. 4/10.