Liv­ing – first-look review

‘YOLO,’ as the kids say. Direct­ed by Oliv­er Her­manus (Moffie, The End­less Riv­er) and writ­ten by nov­el­ist Kazuo Ishig­uro (Nev­er Let Me Go, The Remains of the Day), Liv­ing is the col­lab­o­ra­tive British reimag­in­ing of the Aki­ra Kuro­sawa clas­sic Ikiru of 1952, in which a cer­tain Mr Williams (Bill Nighy) receives a can­cer diag­no­sis, with approx­i­mate­ly six months left to live.

The film is set in the indus­tri­al ruins of post-World War Two Lon­don – through beau­ti­ful cin­e­matog­ra­phy that echoes Tech­ni­col­or – with many of the scenes play­ing out in the Coun­ty House where bureau­cra­cy boasts an even poor­er effi­cien­cy than that of today.

Mr Williams, nick­named ​“Mr Zom­bie” by one of the younger employ­ees, Miss Har­ris (Aimee Lou Wood) in the divi­sion over which he pre­sides, has long played the role of the dull, inef­fi­ca­cious type of bureau­crat with lit­tle to say and lit­tle to do. This diag­no­sis, how­ev­er, gal­vanis­es him to reclaim his life and tru­ly begin to, well, live.

Mr. Williams’ efforts to throw him­self into a hedo­nis­tic lifestyle of drink­ing, pub-crawl­ing, and stay­ing out into the ear­ly morn­ings are suc­cess­ful, but short-lived, as he realis­es that con­ven­tion­al means of hys­teric fun are not the most fruit­ful means to help one feel alive.

He does, how­ev­er, begin to seek emo­tion­al solace in Miss Har­ris whom he runs into one day in town while ​‘skiv­ing,’ and ulti­mate­ly dis­clos­es his dis­mal prog­no­sis to very view peo­ple, his son (Bar­ney Fish­wicke) not an exception.

His ulti­mate attempt to live out his final days to the fullest are by throw­ing him­self into his work and putting his heart into the caus­es he finds to mat­ter, such as the con­struc­tion of a children’s playground.

The film, while warm at heart, is a bit slow and unimag­i­na­tive in nature. Not only is it the remak­ing of a clas­sic, but it also feels sub­lim­i­nal­ly repet­i­tive with respect to its plot and themes.

Its true high­light is the under­stat­ed per­for­mance of Aimee Lou Wood, whose effer­ves­cent spark brings some light to an oth­er­wise slow-pulse sto­ry, sup­port­ed by a true-to-form per­for­mance from Nighy, as well as a strong sup­port­ing cast in Alex Sharp, Tom Burke, and Adri­an Rawl­ins who play fel­low employ­ees in Mr Williams’ divi­sion in the Coun­ty Hall.

Addi­tion­al­ly, beyond the steady per­for­mances deliv­ered in a lit­tle-to-applaud sto­ry, the shot com­po­si­tion in present-day and in Mr Williams’ flash­backs that occur through­out the film is enough to equi­li­brate it as a decent watch.