5 Flights Up

Richard Loncraine's dramedy could easily be mistaken for a basic-cable telefilm except for the fact that it stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton. The story unfolds over a couple days, beginning with painter Alex (Freeman) returning from a shopping trip with dog Dorothy, enthusing about the Brooklyn neighborhood where he and his wife Ruth (Keaton) have lived for 40 years. But their fifth-floor apartment is in a building without an elevator, so the pair have enlisted a real-estate agent niece (Cynthia Nixon) to arrange an open house for prospective buyers—a decision that becomes even more urgent when Dorothy is diagnosed with a ruptured disc. The bulk of what follows shifts between the open house, with its predictably eccentric visitors, and the couple's venturing out to search for a new place, all set against the backdrop of an ongoing terrorist incident that has shut down the Brooklyn Bridge. Thanks to the charm that Keaton and Freeman bring to their flimsily-written roles, 5 Flights Up is a mostly agreeable tale of an aging couple caught up in the vagaries of the New York real-estate market, but the stars deserved something better than such lightweight fare. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)