By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Oliver Hermanus
Starring: Aimee Lou Wood | Alex Sharp | Bill Nighy | Lia Williams | Tom Burke | Zoe Boyle
Country: japan, united_kingdom
Year: 2023
Running time: 102
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9051908/reference/
Brett says: “Bill Nighy plays Mr. Williams in an English adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s IKIRU. Mr. Williams has been a proper gentleman bureaucrat during his many years employed at the County Hall office. The tradeoff is that it has been mostly a joyless existence—not traumatic altogether, just without eccentricity. Now, at present in the film, Mr. Williams is facing terminal illness, which prompts the title LIVING to undergo careful consideration and examination.
“Nighy takes a step back from any lively, energetic, or jolly performance in this film, easing off the accelerator and implementing a very reserved method in order to eloquently capture the caged and deeply conflicted man he portrays. The plot is minimalist, moving sometimes at a snail’s pace, giving great care and deliberateness to the character portrait within. The effect is like watching a soft first snow of winter flutter in, taking time to fill all visible gaps one snowflake at a time until one is finally covered in a new coat or blanket that slowly took over through the hypnotic effect. The pace is consistent, a gently rocking bassinet from beginning to end.
“Nighy’s Mr. Williams is juxtaposed with a terrific supporting performance from Aimee Lou Wood, who portrays Miss Margaret Harris as the key vibrant figure in the film who does so with an unassuming innocence. Her performance also matches the reserved tone of the film, yet there is a spark of life in her simple charisma. She is alive in a way that her surrounding staff and the grave mannerisms entrenched in their demeanors are not. It’s as if each one of the others is rehearsing for funerals, even though each one is living. This is coupled with the color contrast of her attire amid various shadows of black upon black surrounding her. Miss Harris remains unaware of it in herself though; she’s “just a person” in her own mind, which is an effective way to passively elevate her importance to Mr. Williams and the overarching themes from the film. Isn’t being ‘just a person’ a step up from carrying on as not a person at all?
“The plot points that do progress that narrative are subtlety wrapped with a bit of metaphor if one looks closely enough. The challenge that Mr. Williams takes upon himself to fulfill a sense of living has historical and thematic relevance beyond the superficial layer of his endeavor. What sets this up is that the film’s first reveal of Mr. Williams, a train ride to work among a team of office workers in the opening scene that might get easily overlooked, already has him framed as nothing more than a ghost in the window of a passing train. So, it’s to be expected that the later attempts of Mr. Williams to combat that notion would take on an extra layer beyond what he is actually trying to accomplish on the surface.
“While it’s easy to view this film at its leisurely pace as a fairly cut-and-dry story, it can also be observed in a similar light as a Caspar David Friedrich painting with more underwritten in the scenes of black or muted tones than what one might see at first glance. 4 cats out of 5“