Based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 Japanese film Ikiru, which in itself was inspired by the 1886 Russian novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, Oliver Hermanus’s Living is an understated take on one of life’s most complicated musings: What does it mean to truly live?
It’s a big question, but in the hands of Hermanus it manages to be a surprisingly intimate one, as Kazuo Ishiguro’s script ponders the meaning of what’s our purpose through the subtle embodiment of Mr. Williams (Bill Nighy, rightfully nominated for Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards).
Living a mundane existence in the London County Council in the 1950’s, Mr. Williams talks delicately and acts with little haste as piles of paperwork ascend around him. Nonetheless, he’s imposing in his nature.
After a quiet opening, we learn that he has only months to live, a diagnosis that sends him into an internal spin, pondering the nature of his being and the philosophical difference between living and merely existing.
As heavy as this all sounds, Living is actually quite an endearing film. Nighy is stuffy and subdued throughout – there’s no rambunctious Love Actually energy here – but he’s undoubtedly Living’s heart and soul. Equally as rousing is Aimee Lou Wood as Margaret Harris, a former secretary, who becomes an unlikely companion to Williams in his last months of reevaluation.
Nosey onlookers suggest romantic inclinations between the two, but Ishiguro is too smart of a writer to even entertain such a notion. There’s a comfort explored in their relationship as he feels safe in confiding in her his diagnosis, as well as being able to spoil someone who genuinely expects nothing from his generosity.
As joyous as Living ultimately is – in the mutest of ways possible – there’s a sadness tinged to its message, as the liberality of Williams suggests he was always a kind-natured human – he just didn’t necessarily have the motivation or right human connection to exercise as such.
A beautiful film that thrives on its melancholic mentality, Living expresses its message of the ripple effect one can have on someone with even the smallest of actions in the most restricted of fashions. And in a time when so many filmmakers believe bigger is better, that’s truly a gift worth living for.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Living is now screening in Australian theatres.
