5 Flights Up (2014)

And, of course, a disappointment. With both Keaton and Freeman in it, you'd at least hope for if not expect a winner. They usually come across, but this time out they could have been twiddling their thumbs for the scene to finish and the entire film to come to an end. Hackneyed, stereotypical older couple who've lived on love all their life and haven't seemed to benefit from it. And even worse were the apartment seekers, one duller and more idiotic than the next. The secondary theme with a kind of terrorist was just noisy and in the way, although pretty much everything was in the way. The actors playing the stars as younger selves (Claire van der Boom as a young Keaton was spot on) were better at it and both Cynthia Nixon and Carrie Preston played well. But all in all, something that was meant to obviously be a feel good movie succeeded in making me feel worse.

Fmovies: Aging Morgan Freeman and wifey Diane Keaton are selling their 5th floor walk-up apartment in Brooklyn. He's old and there's no elevator. Her niece (Cynthia Nixon) is a realtor and is arranging for an open house. The couple remember their youth in boring flashbacks and recall their 40 years in the apartment. She's a retired teacher, and he's a (failed?) artist. They hope to get a million dollars but have no plans on what to do or where to go after the apartment sells.

After their open house, with assorted kooks and dopes in attendance, it dawns on them to start looking for an apartment. They go to an open house (where all the same kooks and dopes appear) and decide to put a bid on an apartment. Will they get it? Does anyone care? In the background of all this "drama" is the story of an alleged terrorist on the Brooklyn Bridge, which they have a view of. Nixon is worried that the terrorist story, incessantly on every TV, will hurt the asking price of the apartment. They also have a sick dog in the hospital.

Other than that, all the main characters do is chit chat about nothing. They never shut up even though they have nothing to say. There's no humor, no wisdom, no surprises from this boring couple.

Freeman plays the noble artist, who apparently has made a living from his art, but all he talks about is his failure. Keaton blathers on about nothing important. They have been an interracial and childless couple for 40 years and have basically nothing to say. In flashback we see the scenes where she learns she can't conceive, and the one where her mother disapproves of Freeman. Yawn.

Nixon registers as an unpleasant and greedy realtor who seems to care zilch for her aunt and eventually tells them to F off. The rest of the cast is just a parade of "types" wandering in and out of apartments. In fact, when discussing bids, the realtor refers to them as "blue leggings," "dog couple," "crab," etc.

In the end, nothing gets resolved and you end up right where you started. How this one ever found the money to get made is a mystery. This is a bad TV movie masquerading as something more.

"I don't like our lives being in the hands of someone else." Alex (Freeman) and Ruth (Keaton) are getting ready to sell their apartment and begin a new chapter in their life. When they begin to show the space old feelings begin to come back. Now, between the visitors and looking for a new place, they start to remember the times they had together. First of all I have to say this movie was OK, but being 36, if I was about 30 years older I think I would have liked it more. The story is OK but this is a movie that resonates much more with an older crowd do due the subject matter. The acting is great and it was good but many of the subtleties were lost on me since I have never been through something like this. Overall, worth seeing but the older you are the more you will enjoy this. I give it a B-.

5 Flights Up fmovies. Morgan Freeman hasn't really been acting recently,considering Dolphin Tale 2 where he was just phoning it in,but here he nails it.His chemistry with Diane Keaton is mind blowing,they are perfect for this roles.

Now the movie doesn't quiet transcend all the clichés but overall when u look at it it's just a real life beautiful movie about moving out from an apartment that they have been in for 40 years.

It's a movie that deals with a dilemma that we all maybe have or will be going through.Because we all have to move at some point in life,we all have to look for a new pace to live in,we all get old,and this is mostly this movie deals with.

You should take your whole family to see this movie,it's amazing,it's shot perfectly and overall just 92 minutes well spend considering all this rubbish that's been coming out recently.

There are several ways to create dramatic interest in film, not all are reliant on the old theatrical modes. There are docudramas and movies that are like magazine stories, which narrate stories over several decades to give a complete tale.

Scorsese said once that he thought American movies were more like magazine articles with pictures in that they told a story rather than created drama. From the director of "Casino", which really is the magazine style movie par excellence, that is an insight.

It is possible to create tension and engagement with this style, even when reduced to a small episodic tale. In books this can work well because the author does the meta-narration, which is the interpretation of action. It is a difficult task to make cinematic and so it is with 5 Flights Up, or Ruth and Alex.

While this style may work on the page, in that clear, bland, non-style of glossy magazine commercial fiction, its lack of a center leaves the movie vacuous. Superficially, the story of moving apartments and juggling brokers might seem enough but it isn't. It's too mundane and property is a weak idea to make an entire movie function. Imagine if Lady Macbeth and the Thane of Cawdor had got into a castle moving story: she preoccupied with cleaning up the blood stains for the new tenants, he unable to move all his knives, shields and swords out to make the castle look bigger.

This is a small, dull film, with all the pace and visual qualities of wallpaper paste. It has frittered the talents of its cast. Ruth and Alex is a very slight story that didn't really deserve to be made into a film and doesn't deserve anyone's time.

I expected a quirky little movie here. The summary seemed to be something that would interest me. Boy was I wrong.

So basically, an older couple is looking to sell their New York City (Brooklyn) apartment. Why? Well, because it has five flights of stairs and they are a little concerned about their health. OK. Reasonable enough. As far as I know, they have no other reason. They both do not particularly want to move, in fact they love their apartment. Right, so why are they moving? oh yea, the stairs.

The movie continues by showing how the couple moved to the apartment over 40 years ago, it shows flashbacks of their earlier years and all the fond memories they have. But, you know, 5 flights of stairs. The have an annoying as hell real estate agent who has an open house in their apartment. For some reason, everyone, except a sweet little girl are a$$holes. Everyone. I'm not sure why they made it this way, but they were all jerks. I didn't get that. Unless that's how the general populous of NYC is considered? No idea. Never been there Then they start looking for a new apartment. They find one they like, even though they say nothing will ever be as good as our apartment (then why the f*^k are you moving?!!!). I was almost shouting at the TV about how idiotic this move is! It's all about two people moving, who don't want to move. And if you can't guess what happens in the end? let me just say that there is no point to this movie. None.

Oh, and for some reason there's a dog who has surgery and a potential terrorist.

Pass.