5 Flights Up

5 Flights Up (released in the United Kingdom as Ruth & Alex) is a 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Richard Loncraine, written by Charlie Peters, and starring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton. The film is based on the novel Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment. It was released on May 8, 2015 by Focus World. Plot Alex and Ruth Carver, an older couple, want to move because living in a five-story walk-up is too difficult without an elevator. Alex is a painter and uses one of the rooms as his studio. Ruth is a retired school teacher. They have lived there so many years that it and the neighborhood have become intertwined with their lives. Their niece Lilly is their broker and believes the apartment is worth up to $1M. Three other plot lines develop simultaneously with the sale of the apartment. One is the problem with the Carvers' old dog Dorothy who gets a ruptured disc and the issue of how much money to spend to help her. The second is an ongoing news story about a driver of a disabled tanker truck, a supposed terrorist, on the bridge near the Carvers' apartment. The third is the Carvers looking at new apartments. The vet tells them that an operation costing $10,000 might fix Dorothy's ruptured disk. Alex is against it at first but later agrees with Ruth that they have to do whatever it takes to save Dorothy. After the operation, Dorothy is still unable to move her legs. Toward the end of the movie, while still under the care of the vet, Dorothy starts walking again.