Movie Review - 5 Flights Up

5 Flights Up (2015)

Starring Morgan Freeman, Diane Keaton, and Cynthia Nixon

Directed by Richard Loncraine

***This film is currently available on HBO Now***

I've always liked Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton (despite the fact that the latter has played nothing but interchangeable characters in the last twenty years) so I figured why not give 5 Flights Up a shot.  Sure, it's a little comedy that made not a blip on anyone's cinematic radar last year, but the two leads are always watchable, so I gave it a go.

Well, it's a big ole bust.  Freeman and Keaton are charming as Alex and Ruth Carver, an older married couple who, after forty years of marriage, decide it may be time to move out of their fifth floor NYC apartment for the simple reason that they may be getting too weak to climb up the stairs.  Once you move past that charming aspect, though, everything else falters.  Burdened with stories of a dog with a slipped disc, a possible Muslim terrorist running rampant through their neighborhood (despite the obviousness from the get go that this isn't really the case), and Ruth's talkative niece/real estate agent (Cynthia Nixon), 5 Flights Up lacks any modicum of focus.  The two leads can't save the lack of a cohesive story and this whole thing falls terribly flat.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+