Review:
"Living"
Release Date: Jan. 27, 2023.
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 102 minutes To live a humdrum existence is not to live at all. All you will leave behind is a short obituary and the dim prospect of a few loved ones attending your funeral service. This is the hard reality faced by Bill Nighy’s detached government bureaucrat Mr. Williams in Living, a sublime British remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1952 drama Ikiru. After learning he has six months left to live, the City of London public works official comes to the quick realization that his life thus far has amounted to nothing more than being a government-sanctioned obstacle to progress. His office is where project proposals and permit requests go to die. Unsure of what to do, Mr. Williams uncharacteristically abandons his post and makes an unexpected trip to a seaside resort town. There he meets hedonistic writer Sutherland (Tom Burke). “Six months…. It doesn’t seem long, but it’s something. Enough time to put things in order and to live a little if you choose to,” Sutherland tells Mr. Williams over a cup of tea. So, rather than waste his remaining days, Mr. Williams decides to change the course of what’s left of his life both on and off the clock. But how to go about it? Directed with a sharp eye by Oliver Hermanus from a perceptive script by “The Remains of the Day” novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, Living treats its disoriented civil servant as a reclamation project deserving of empathy. From the get-go, Mr. Williams is presented as an inevitable product of his environment. The government he works for the 1950s does not work for the public. Its goal is to prevent rather than to create, as evidenced by the runaround a group of activists known as “The Ladies” endure in their bid to build a children’s playground. There is no effort to hide the inefficiencies intended to disillusion or deter. We have all encountered a Mr. Williams during the course of our dealings with all levels of government. And, at the start of Living, Nighy is a calm and soft-spoken but emotionally monotone embodiment of bureaucratic dispassion and hindrance. He infuriates by remaining a passive presence. This is also reflected in the colorless, nondescript surroundings he and his insubordinates inhabit, from the train carriages that carries them to Central London and back to Suburbia to the offices filled with mostly snobbish white male government workers who busying themselves doing nothing. Even the streets of London Mr. Williams walks down appear to be drab and uninviting, which director Oliver Hermanus shrewdly employs to contrast the other places and venues Mr. Williams visits that gives him a new lease on life. One particular location in London, which comes to hold a very special place in Mr. Williams’ heart, stands out as an oasis in an inner city made of brick and mortar. Nighy’s transformation from docile protector of the status quo to man of action is gradual and subtle. It’s less about a change in personality than the adoption of a positive demeanor and the tapping into a long-suppressed energy. While Mr. Williams remains discrete and composed during his final days, Nighy turns him into a quiet force to be reckoned with. This is all bookended by Nighy’s tear-inducing renditions of the Scottish folk song “The Rowan Tree,” the first filled with regret for a squandered life, the second awash with a joy that comes with dying as best as you can on your own terms. He also establishes an unexpected connection with two twentysomethings who work for him, Aimee Lou Wood’s cheery Margaret Harris and Alex Sharp’s new hire Peter Wakeling. In Margaret, Mr. Williams sees a person bursting with passion and optimistic, someone he is not but wants to be before he dies. Wood’s infectious effervesce makes Margaret the perfect guide for Mr. Williams in his bid to live out his final days with pleasure and goodwill, despite the obvious suspicions that surround their platonic relationship. Peter, though, is a different matter. To Mr. Williams, Peter is what government needs: a fresh young mind with a desire to help and influence positive change. He fears that Public Works will crush Peter’s drive and turn him into another “Mr. Zombie,” Margaret’s nickname for Mr. Williams. Sharp does more than present Peter as a potential future mirror image of Mr. Williams—he shares our surprise and dismay at the bureaucracy everyday people must endure when dealing with all levels of government. And it is unclear whether Peter has the strength to go against a system that refuses to change. Hence Mr. Williams’ undeclared interest in seeing Peter remain true to himself. It is all part of Mr. Williams efforts to leave his mark on the world that he previously distanced himself from. As Mr. Williams reminds us in Living in transcendental fashion, it is never too late to make a life change or to create a favorable new legacy. Robert Sims Aired: Jan. 31, 2023. Web sites: https://www.sonyclassics.com/film/living/ https://www.facebook.com/LivingMovieUS/ |
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