Acclaimed British director Richard Loncraine’s latest film offers a saccharine view of New York real estate through the eyes of a long-married couple.
5 Flights Up joins elderly couple, Alex and Ruth Carver, as they contemplate selling the fifth-floor Brooklyn flat they have lived in for 40 years. A nostalgic, if not overly sentimental portrayal of how Brooklyn has changed in four decades, it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations you’d have for such a wonderful cast.
Morgan Freeman as geriatric artist, Alex, and Diane Keaton as the rather hysterical Ruth do have a certain chemistry, but the script feels stilted at times. The characters, rather than provoking sympathy with their all-too-human foibles (Ruth airs every worry she has in a high pitched tirade and Alex is insecure about his inferred struggle as an artist), incite feelings of agitation and frustration. And even moments of real sadness – like the memory of not being able to conceive a child together, or the news that their 10-year-old dog might not survive back surgery – fail to generate any pathos. This owes as much to the pacing of the film as it does to the acting.
The ensuing drama around the Carvers’ difficulty in deciding whether or not to sell their gorgeous apartment – goaded by their pushy realtor niece Lily, played by Sex and the City’s Cinthia Nixon (Miranda) – is wrapped around a subplot following the fictional TV news reporting of a suspected terrorist reeking havoc on Williamsburg bridge. The cry of ‘terrorist’ turns out to be a false alarm, something that serves as a rather poignant reminder of how disproportionate the reactions of law enforcement services and media have been to real situations like this in recent times.
Within the slow-moving real estate drama, the film does offer some rather amusing and enlightened character studies, particularly in the open house scenes. But moments of potential wit miss the mark somehow, and the film lacks a true insight into the issues it tackles – namely how competitive cities’ dog-eat-dog housing markets have got and how difficult older generations can find it to adjust to rapidly changing times.
At best, 5 Flights Up is a charming and nostalgic view of an elderly couple trying to adapt to a new world; at worst it’s a rather sappy and thin portrayal of a busy-but-bland few days in the quiet lives of two ordinary people.
– Rosie Pentreath
Rosie Pentreath is a freelance arts journalist who moved from the UK to Sydney in April 2015, just to shake things up a bit. Formerly Digital Editor & Staff Writer at BBC Music Magazine, she has bylines in BBC Music Magazine, Homes & Antiques magazine and The Debrief, to name a few. When she’s not writing, she’s most happy running around with a Pentax MV1 SLR camera or discovering as much new music as she can. Rosie tweets at @RosiePentreath
5 Flights Up is showing now at selected cinemas around Sydney
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