Five Feet Apart is a 2019 American romantic drama film directed by Justin Baldoni (in his directorial debut)[4] and written by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis.

[5] Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse play two young patients with cystic fibrosis who try to have a relationship despite being forced to stay six feet apart from each other.

Teenagers Stella Grant and Will Newman have cystic fibrosis (CF), a progressive genetic disorder that damages organs and makes patients vulnerable to infections.

Stella, who copes with her illness by trying to maintain control of her daily regimen, takes her medication religiously and follows doctors' orders precisely.

She tells him about two young people with CF who died after they fell in love and broke the six-foot rule, contaminating each other.

She decides to take back one foot that CF has stolen from her, and carries a pool cue that measures exactly five feet so she can keep precisely that far away from Will.

In January 2017, Tobias Iaconis and Mikki Daughtry sold their untitled screenplay to CBS Films for Justin Baldoni to produce and direct.

[10][11] In April of that year, Haley Lu Richardson was also set to star, and Moisés Arias joined in a supporting role.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Elevated considerably by Haley Lu Richardson's performance but bogged down by clichés, Five Feet Apart doesn't tug at the heartstrings quite as deftly as it should.

[21] Andrew Barker of Variety praised the performance of Richardson, which he called "a star turn," though described the film as an "otherwise formulaic teen romance.

Club commended the lead performances but said "In the end... even Richardson and Sprouse can't fully overcome the clumsy mawkishness around them.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation welcomed the opportunity to raise awareness about the struggle many patients experience with the disease,[30] while others found fault with the film's depiction of medically dangerous behavior.

[31] Others voiced concern about a terminal illness being romanticized and trivialized as a Hollywood teen romance plot device.

[32] One doctor from Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital voiced their concern by stating the movie had false premises on the "six foot rule" to begin with.

[34] The film was promoted using Instagram, where the studio paid influencers to post about hardships involving love and physical distance.

[32] Many of the posts discussed family members who lived far away; the promotion was perceived as tone-deaf and trivializing a fatal disease.