Living (2022)

By: Mike Ward on Saturday, January 21

PG-13 Running Time: 102 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Bill Nighy delivers one of the most wonderful and earnest performances of the year.

  • Fans of contemplative and reflective dramas will find a melancholic charm with Oliver Hermanus’ remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film, Ikiru.

  • Nighy is our guide into a world that seems both simple and deeply complex. A film which finds strength in the spoken and unspoken moments enveloping our lead character.

NO

  • Contemplative and reflective - two words that may drive some people far away from Living.

  • The slow, measured pace, matched by a patient, whispery performance from Bill Nighy, could strike some people as fitfully boring and uninteresting.

  • Avoids a sentimental tone beyond Nighy’s character grappling with big decisions and personal struggle. The film has been described as cold and not inviting. Not my take, but this might be your experience.


OUR REVIEW

There is something to be said when an actor goes against-type, or delivers a performance that may seem counter to anything they have done before. When that performance exceeds expectations and simply feels like a life’s work being introduced anew, you can see an actor in a completely different light. I remember the great character actor, Richard Jenkins, finally getting his moment to carry a movie on his own - 2007’s The Visitor - and earning an Oscar nomination for a beautiful, moving performance that allowed him to fully create a leading character from top to bottom. The movie didn’t light up the box office or anything, but it turned Jenkins’ career around on a dime and finally showcased him as an actor who could powerfully lead a movie on his very own.

I thought of Jenkins and The Visitor often when watching another character actor, Bill Nighy, deliver a stunning, moving performance as Mr. Williams, a businessman harboring a personal, private secret he is not quite ready to share with his family or his closest co-workers. Most will think of Nighy as Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Even more may remember him as the rambunctious rocker Billy Mack in the 2003 film, Love, Actually. Some may recall him from other ensemble films, a stint in the first part of the Harry Potter finale, and on and on. With Living, he stands proudly on his own, leading a soft-spoken, dramatic film with grace, elegance, and heartbreaking reality. This is Nighy’s moment. And he more than delivers.

Living is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru. Lifting the film from Japan to 1950s London, Nighy’s Mr. Williams is a Public Works director, nattily dressed in a perfectly-coiffed suit and very focused on his job. He lives with his son and daughter-in-law, who are no longer hiding the stress they are feeling in living with Dad.

Nighy is almost ghostly in his dark suits and quiet presence, fitting perhaps for someone who has just learned that he has approximately six months left to live. After hearing a squabble that he feels at least somewhat responsible for, he eschews sharing his news with his family. Instead, as much as his patterned, disciplined self will allow, he lives - latching onto a friendship with his younger co-worker, Miss Margaret Harris (Aimee Lou Wood). 

Before red flags go up, though Mr. Williams wants to spend time with Miss Harris, there is nothing truly illicit at play. He simply wants to find a sense of youthfulness to try and give meaning to his final months. When he connects with an old friend, Mr. Williams says very little. When with Miss Harris, he is more observant, inquisitive and takes in things around him.  

Directed by Oliver Hermanus (Moffie), he more than recognizes that trusting Nighy is the way to go. As such, Nighy commands every frame he’s in, his presence at once soothing and disquieting. Because we know his secret, and no one else seemingly does, the screenplay from acclaimed novelist Kazuo Ishiguro allows us to live vicariously through the choices Mr. Williams is making. We contemplate how we would handle his information. We analyze how we might do things differently. Though set in London in the 1950s, existing in a world largely foreign to many of us watching, we connect with the sunken eyes and steely frame Mr. Williams carries forward each day.

The film’s somewhat colorless look exists around Nighy in the moments away from his family. Jamie Ramsey, the film’s cinematographer, plays with angles and shots of multiple distances to convey a sense of eavesdropping on certain moments and being brought In close for the more intimate conversations found in Mr. Williams’ journey. Nighy just radiates kindness and loneliness. You ache for his quiet, but know that he lives on his terms. You respect that. You respect him. And understand better why those around him may jokingly call him “Mr. Zombie,” but yet struggle to function when he is not around.

Living is a slow-burn of a film, patient and emblematic of its main character. For some, this will be too slow with not enough happening; a deliberate reveal of Mr. Williams’ emotional state being perhaps too measured and too drawn out. When I wanted things to move a bit quicker, and at times I certainly did, I realized the movie lived through the prism of its main character. And that slower pace is likely everything Mr. Williams could hope for as he rationalizes and comes to terms with a reality he would welcome to stay far away from for as long as possible.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke, Adrian Rawlings, Michael Cochrane, Barney Fishwick, Patsy Ferran

Director: Oliver Hermanus
Written by: Kazuo Ishiguro
Adapted from the film “Ikiru”, written by Akira Kurosawa
Release Date: December 23, 2022
Sony Pictures Classics