5 Flights Up

Ruth and Alex Carver have lived for decades in the same New York apartment, a walk-up in the East Village they bought when the neighborhood was far from fashionable. Now retired, Ruth a former teacher and Alex still painting, they decide to sell and move on, letting their niece, a real estate agent, show the place to prospective buyers over a single weekend. What should be a straightforward sale turns into an emotional reckoning, as the couple weighs a stream of offers against the memories attached to the home and the practical question of where they would go next.

The film was directed by Richard Loncraine, arriving in his filmography between Firewall and Finding Your Feet, from a screenplay by Charlie Peters, who also produced alongside Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary. Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton lead the cast as Alex and Ruth, with Carrie Preston, Cynthia Nixon, Alysia Reiner and Josh Pais among the 34 credited performers. Made for about 6 million dollars, it returned roughly 1 million at the worldwide box office.

Audience response has been mild: on IMDb it holds 6.2 out of 10 from around 12,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from 337 votes. A critics' rating of 5.3 out of 10 from 60 reviews places it below the audience scores, though the two sets of viewer figures are close to each other.