Living

There are roles that actors play that are over-the-top and those that are consistently underplayed, but with the film "Living", we have a character that is clearly depressed, but with subtlety, slowly transcends more to the person he truly is looking to be. We don't see this in many films which makes this movie somewhat of a one-of-a-kind. 

This is the story of an ordinary man, Mr. Williams (Bill Nighy), reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who, at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful. This is 1950's London, and after a point, Mr. Williams, a humorless civil servant decides, without telling anyone, to take time off from work to experience life after receiving a grim diagnosis of cancer. He subsequently confides in a stranger of his diagnosis, Mr. Sutherland (Tom Burke) and he takes Mr. Williams out on the town so as to start his new reawakening. Then later, he confides in a former co-worker, Margaret Harris (Aimee-Lou Wood) about his diagnosis only after they had gotten to know one another more. He is a very closed-mouth kind of man where he doesn't divulge too much of himself but is extremely careful. He likes the men he worked with, especially Mr. Wakeling (Alex Sharp). He told few people of his illness, but most at work, as well as his son Michael (Barney Fishwick), he simply didn't want to bother them. But, as difficult as it was, he truly started to come out of his shell. 

Others to round out the cast are Adrian Rawlins as Mr. Middleton, Hubert Burton as Mr. Rusbridger, Oliver Chris as Mr. Hart, Michael Cochrane as Sir James, Anant Varman as Mr Singh, Zoe Boyle as Mrs. McMasters, Lia Williams as Mrs. Smith, Jessica Flood as Mrs. Porter and Jamie Wilkes as Talbot. 

This was directed with such poignancy and pathos by Oliver Hermanus ("Shirley Adams" '09, "Beauty" '11, "The Endless River" '15, "Moffie" '19). With all the subtle nuances that Nighy had to traverse through this film was not only an incredible acting vehicle for the actor but an expertise directing talent by Hermanus. The transformation in which Nighy had to become was a journey that was able to showcase an individual, in this case Mr. Williams, a transitional trek in which we, the audience, were able to see. It was equally well drafted by writer Kazuo Ishiguro ("A Profile of Arthur J. Mason" (TV movie) '84, "The Gourmet" (TV movie) '84, "The Remains of the Day" (novel) '93, "The Saddest Music in the World" '03, "The White Countess" '05, "Never Let Me Go" (novel) '10, "An Artist of the Floating World" (TV movie) '19) plus TV and a short. based on the original 1952 screenplay "Ikiru" by Akira Kurosawa. This was a very interesting expose on a rather mundane civil servant who truly believed that he really had no purpose in life. So, finding that he had only so much time left on this planet, he decided quite quickly that he needed to find a new purpose in order to live life depending on how much time he had left. It's a brilliant premise that in 1952 was probably cutting edge for a gritty storyline. After so many decades, this premise might seem mundane, but Ishiguro really was able to put a whole new slant on this story. This has got to be the finest performance by Nighy I've ever seen, and I feel he is a fine actor. He could nab the Oscar for best actor this year even though he's up against some hefty competition of the likes of Brendan Fraser for "The Whale" and Austin Butler for "Elvis". Time will tell for sure. 

If you are a Nighy fan, you will absolutely revel with this. As I've said prior, this has got to be his finest performance to date. Even though the premise seems rather ordinary, the script was handled with such expertise that it just left me in a state of awe. 

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                      Rated: PG-13                                           102mins.