Movie Review: Living

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A

A beautiful British remake of a Japanese classic. 

To many movie buffs, remaking Akira Kurasawa's Ikiru (1952), seems sacrilegious. I would be lying if I said I didn't have a healthy amount of skepticism about remaking such a masterpiece. However, Living turned out to be a truly beautiful film, whose biggest fault is simply that the original was even better. Like the original, this is a movie that tackles huge subjects, including life and death. It approaches these subjects in a non-pretentious and straightforward manner, but one that does not lack depth and complexities. The film deals with an older man, who discovers that he has a terminal disease and only has six months to live. Unlike many films which would take a simplistic quit your job and do what you always dreamed of approach; this film takes a very different approach. The main character has followed the same routine every day and found himself simply going through life in a mechanical and joyless manner. This is something that happens to all of us and sometimes mechanically following a routine can make us forgot about the passion, we once had for our lives. Some early scenes show him trying to indulge in frivolities that he had never partaken in. Yet unlike many other movies that would have these as pure joyous scenes, here they are anything but. They are just as joyless as the early scenes in the office. This is portrayed in a purely cinematic and visual way, that put us in his shoes better than any dialogue ever could. Yet this is not a joyless film and is in fact delves into a completely different kind of joy. While I do not want to give much away, this movie deals heavily with the internal search for a way to spend the little time he has left truly living, rather than an external. This is something that is not only much deeper and thought provoking compared to what we see in so many movies with similar premises, but also one that is more emotionally investing. This movie does a wonderful job of making you truly care about our main character and go on the emotional journey with him. This is not done through an overabundance of dialogue or characters philosophizing in ways that a regular person would never do. In fact this is presented in a rather quiet and subdued manner that manages to get its point across clearly without ever telling us directly what that point is. The result is an incredibly emotionally powerful movie and one that by the end brought real tears to my eyes.

This movie also is a visual treat for those of us who are fans of 50's cinema. The whole film has the look of a movie from the 1950's (this is especially true of the opening scenes). This not only gives this film a wonderful and unique look for a modern movie, but it also perfectly brings to life the setting of 1950's London. The use of black and white in some of the early flash back scenes is also a wonderful visual touch which brings real life to the type of scenes that have become almost cliché today. The wonderful use of color in this movie, as well as how well it uses its British settings also give it ways to make this film feel diffrent from the classic it is remaking, while still being a faithful remake. This movie also benefits from an incredibly human and moving performance by Bill Nighy. His performance is very human and vulnerable, while always keeping the character feel like someone we can respect instead of simply pity. 

This is a truly wonderful movie, with a powerful quiet beauty. It may be a remake of a masterpiece, but it is still a great movie by its own merits.