SCREEN SHOT - Living ( 2022 )

Living has a script written by Kazou Ishiguru, that is adapted from the Kurosawa 1952 film Ikiru. It has been re-set in an archetypal post war Britain, so this has a very similar period vibe and portrayal if constricted masculine self expression, as Ishiguru's Remains of the Day. Bill Nighy's style of buttoned up restrained acting is, in this sense, tailor made for the central character of Living - Mr Williams.  And he plays it with a consummate subtlety, understating the emotion whilst providing all the visual physicality that suggest a more disquieted and deeper unease beneath.

Mr Williams runs a department in the city council. Most of the time he is warding off or delaying work being approved, by referring it to other departments, who refer it to other departments, who refer it back to Mr Williams desk. At which point he'll place it in a tray saying, 'I think we'll hold that here for a while'. The whole departmental appears set up to bureaurcratically procrastinate, delay  prevent or cancel projects. Very little gets the thumbs up to proceed. It is a nightmare run entirely on stuffy minded prejudices of class and gender. Then Mr Williams is given a fatal health diagnosis, that he is suffering from a terminal cancer. This awakens him to what the reality of his life has been. He tells his family nothing about his imminent death. But his whole approach to life alarmingly changes, and the effectiveness of his department is consequently transformed for the better.

The opening credits evoke a Pathe News visual style and colour palette, Living is soaked in nostalgic sentiment and lovingly recreated period details. Mr Williams becomes a representative of an every man or every woman, who devotes their working life to doddling through a meaningless job, producing little of long lasting worth. It provides them with no satisfaction, or any feeling that they can achieve anything remotely good. This is something most of us will have some experienc of at some point in our life. The moral of the tale, does get over egged and a tad laboured by the end. It remains, however, a deeply affecting film, with a central superlative acting performance that single handedly brings real heart to it.

CARROT REVIEW - 5/8