As a character actor best known for his reoccurring roles in the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” and “Underworld” franchises, Bill Nighy makes every film he appears in better simply by showing up. His boozing and aging rock star from “Love, Actually” was the sole interesting character in that otherwise overly frothy confection.
The closest Nighy has ever come to carrying a dramatic feature as the lead was the just-OK “Sometimes Always Never” from 2018, but with “Living,” the 73-year-old Nighy has finally “arrived.”
Kurosawa and Tolstoy
Based on the 1952 Japanese masterpiece “Ikiru” by Akira Kurosawa (itself based on the 1886 Leo Tolstoy novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”), “Living” is an initially brittle character study of a prim and staid government bureaucrat ruled by routine and red tape.Mr. Williams (Nighy) runs a generic branch of London’s “County Hall,” a monolithic collective which has purse power over all city expenditures. Williams and his counterparts in other divisions are masters of passing the buck around, as it is all of their jobs to spend as little money (and take as little blame) as possible.
Get to It
It is only after widower Williams receives confirmation that he has mere months to live does he decide to start “living.” While overhearing a disparaging conversation about him between his mealy-mouthed son Michael (Barney Fishwick) and his shrew daughter-in-law Fiona (Patsy Ferran), Williams decides not to tell them his bad news and instead heads to a coastal resort city.
With the aid of bohemian-tortured-artist playwright Mr. Sutherland (Tom Burke), Williams does a pub crawl where he gets summarily hammered and (as much as is possible for him) lets his hair down. It is also the first time we hear him sing his mother’s favorite song: the Scottish ballad “The Rowan Tree.”
Drained, yet rejuvenated after his extended “lost weekend,” Williams returns to work with new purpose, which goes well. He also attempts to kindle something resembling romance with Miss Harris (Aimee Lou Wood), a much younger former subordinate employee. That doesn’t happen.
Silence Is Golden
The screenplay was adapted by Japanese-born British writer Kazou Ishiguro, the Nobel Prize winning author of “Remains of the Day” from 1989. Ishiguro’s ear for the muted, clipped, and monotone, but often pointed and barbed English language is nothing less than stunning. While the narrative is propelled by a higher-than-average amount of dialogue, it also relies on frequent, strategically-placed silent beats which provide a level of communication and character intent no words could fulfill.
Following what can only be described as a false ending, the filmmakers present the entire third act via flashback. Often used as a crutch or spackle to fill holes in the screenplay, the flashback device employed here is jarringly effective and takes the story in a direction we weren’t expecting.
Praise Aplenty
Having already received numerous critical and industry accolades (including Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice Association nods), Nighy is practically a lock for an Academy Award nomination in what will be a crowded field.What is most impressive about this particular performance is its understatement. All too often, people perceive bold and flashy histrionics as great acting, and that’s fine as long as it is apropos for the character being portrayed. Playing “small,” as Nighy does here, is nowhere as easy as it looks; in fact, the exact opposite is true and only heightens our suspension of disbelief.
Correctly referred to at various points by other characters as “frosty” and “Mr. Zombie,” Williams starts off as an impossible-to-read man whose underlings both deeply respect and fear him. This might service him well in a working environment but when he’s off the clock, we can see it is gnawing away at his soul and we feel for him as if he was a relative or close friend.
Nighy’s triumph here is no mean feat and something less than a handful of actors on this globe could get close to pulling off.
