By Gabriele Flossman
Bill Nighy plays Williams, a bone-dry London civil servant diagnosed with a terminal illness shortly following World War II. When his doctor tells him he has only a few months to live, he maintains his composure – in the form of a quintessentially British “stiff upper lip”.
After the initial shock, Williams begins to take stock of his rather long life. At least with the intention of collecting a few points on the “good human” credit side in the final sprint of his earthly existence.
The plot is very – at times too much – fixated on Williams’ largely unspoken sadness. But Nighy’s performance conveys, with quiet strength and internalized complexity, that deep feelings may well lie within him. You watch him deal with a relationship with a woman who looks like love but seems too uptight to allow passion.
Living is a loose adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952, aka To Live), a post-war drama regarding a Tokyo bureaucrat who embarks on a similar journey following being diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. This remake isn’t a great film, but it’s moving. thanks nighty
INFO: GB/JPN/SWE 2022. Von Oliver Hermanus. Mit Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp.
