Living (2022 film)

Living is a 2022 British period drama film directed by Oliver Hermanus. Its screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro was adapted from the 1952 Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru. Set in 1953 London, it stars Bill Nighy as a bureaucrat in the public works department who learns he has a fatal illness.

Living had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2022, and was released in the UK on 4 November 2022, by Lionsgate. The film received positive reviews, with Nighy's performance receiving particular acclaim. At the 95th Academy Awards, Living received two nominations: Best Actor for Nighy and Best Adapted Screenplay for Ishiguro.

Plot
Rodney Williams is a senior London County Council bureaucrat in 1953 London. He sits at his desk surrounded by piles of paperwork, and seems uninspired. A group of women, led by Mrs Smith, petition the council to have a World War II bombsite redeveloped into a children's playground. They are sent with their petition from department to department with a newer employee, Mr. Wakeling. Despite Wakeling's enthusiasm, he is stymied by an ossified and sclerotic bureauracy at every step. The petition makes the usual circular rounds and ends back with Williams, who places it back in his pile of paperwork, making clear to his colleagues his intention to take no further action.

When Williams receives a terminal cancer diagnosis he attempts unsuccessfully to tell his son Michael and daughter-in-law, Fiona. Williams then chooses to withdraw half of his life savings, purchase a lethal amount of sleeping medicine, and commit suicide in a seaside resort town. Finding himself unable to go through with it, he gives the sleeping medicine to Mr. Sutherland, an insomniac writer he meets in a café. Moved by Williams's story, Sutherland takes him for a night on the town, where Williams replaces his traditional bowler hat with a fedora after his bowler hat is stolen by a prostitute. The pair go to bars, sing, drink heavily and attend a striptease/burlesque show.

Returning to London but not to work, Williams runs into Miss Margaret Harris, a young former subordinate who took up a position at a Lyon's Corner House restaurant while he was away. Williams's nosy neighbour spots the pair having lunch at the high-end restaurant Fortnum's and tells Fiona, who demands Michael speak to his father about the potential scandal. Meanwhile, Williams attempts to tell Michael about his diagnosis, but neither find themselves able to bring up what they need to talk about.

As Williams's health worsens, he attempts to spend more time with Harris, whose youthful vigour he envies and would like to regain before he dies. Realising the best way to spend his remaining time is to do some good, Williams rallies the various departments to approve construction of the children's playground. During this time, through their mutual respect for Williams, Harris and Wakeling have grown fond of each other and are seen taking walks and sitting in parks together.

Although he is able to push the process through by standing up to his colleagues and superiors, Williams dies shortly after construction is finished. At his funeral, well-attended by the people he has helped, Michael guesses that Williams had told Harris about his diagnosis but not him.

Inspired by Williams's actions, his former colleagues pledge to uphold his example and become advocates for positive change, but soon revert to their old bureaucratic ways. Wakeling, who joined the office shortly before Williams's diagnosis, reads a letter left for him by Williams instructing him to remember the playground when he gets discouraged. Visiting the playground, Wakeling meets a police officer who tells him that he saw Williams there shortly before he died, rocking in the swing in the snow and singing the Scottish folk song "The Rowan Tree." The constable feels guilty that he let Williams sit in the cold in his condition. Wakeling consoles the officer, saying that Rodney Williams was probably happier in that moment than he had been for a very long time.

Production
In October 2020, the project was announced with Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ishiguro as screenwriter, and Nighy and Wood attached to star. In December 2020, Lionsgate acquired the UK distribution rights. In June 2021, principal photography began in the UK, Sharp and Burke were announced to have joined the film, and the first image from the film was released. It was also announced that Toho, the distributor of the original film, had acquired the rights for Japan. London's County Hall provided the backdrop for the film; in addition, the film was co-financed through the County Hall Arts charity.

Release
The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2022. Shortly after, Sony Pictures Classics acquired distribution rights to the film for North and Latin America, India, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Germany, South Africa, Southeast Asia and airlines worldwide for around $5 million in an auction that also included Neon, Bleecker Street and Focus Features among others. Living screened at the 66th BFI London Film Festival in October 2022 and at the TCL Chinese Theatre as part of the 2022 AFI Fest on 6 November 2022. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2022, and had a limited theatrical release in the United States on 23 December 2022. As part of Sony's first-window deal with Netflix in the United States, the movie streamed from 5 June 2023.

Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 221 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Living sets a high bar for itself in setting out to remake a Kurosawa classic—and director Oliver Hermanus and star Bill Nighy clear it in triumphant fashion." On Metacritic, it holds a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Living isn't a great movie—it's a little too subdued at times and has a tendency to fixate on Williams' mostly unarticulated sadness—but it's consistently involving."

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "About two-thirds of the way through the film, Living takes such an abrupt turn that it almost feels as if several key scenes had been inadvertently excised — but then we wind back in time, and all is answered. Throughout, Bill Nighy carries the film effortlessly on his slender shoulders, reminding us of why he's an international treasure."