Attempting to remake a classic film is never an easy assignment. Especially when said classic is as revered as Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 drama “Ikiru.” Director Oliver Hermanus and screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro could have placed the story in contemporary times, making a new version more palatable for some critics, but instead, set it in the exact same era only interchanging London for Tokyo. Their bold arrow aimed at the heart of the movie gods pays off wonderfully as their moving collaboration, “Living,” distinguishes itself as one of the best films to debut at the 2022 edition of the Sundance Film Festival.
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Perhaps it’s thanks to the confidence in winning a Nobel Prize for literature, but Ishiguro makes few changes to the story structure of this new venture. Like the original film’s Mr. Watanabe, Mr. Williams (Bill Nighy), has spent his career as a civil servant for his government. He oversees a small staff who do little to upset the expected bureaucratic malaise. Desks are peppered with growing stacks of useless reports and internal departments do little to advance projects that could benefit their constituents. The film quickly contrasts Mr. Williams’s sloth-like management style by introducing his new employee, Mr. Wakeling (Alex Sharp). On his first day, Wakeling’s energetic enthusiasm is put to the test as he’s put in charge of assisting three women who hope to turn a bombed-out building into a children’s playground. After getting the inevitable run around from every station in the building, he finds himself somewhat defeated (but not deterred).
The focus quickly shifts back to Mr. Williams who, despite a questionable cough, is shocked when his doctor tells him he only has a few months to live. He attempts to tell his son Michael (Barney Fishwick) and antsy daughter-in-law (Patsy Ferran) but is struck to silence after overhearing them disparaging him. The next day his office is surprised that the dependable Mr. Williams is hours late. In fact, he won’t return to work for weeks. That morning he’s headed to the seashore where a chance meeting with a charismatic novelist (Tom Burke), takes him on the sort of wild bohemian night he’s never experienced. Eventually, he realizes sustaining such indulgence is impossible in his current condition and returns home. He does not, however, return to work. Instead, he spends his days in the relative picturesque solace of London’s parks. When one of his former employees, Margaret Harris (Aimee Lou Wood) spots him out and about, they begin a dialogue that spurs gossip, but also an unexpected purpose.
If Ishiguro’s screenplay studiously lays out the social constraints of post-war Britain, then Hermanu’s direction and cinematographer Jamie Ramsay‘s lsensing gives “Living” a stylistic aesthetic punch that is hard to dismiss. While capturing the distinct monotony of the working middle class, Hermanus also allows for the drama to play out in a decidedly natural progression. That may test some viewers’ patience, but it provides a welcome arena for his actors to deliver some truly superb performances. In many ways, that begins and ends with Nighy, who slowly pulls back the cold façade Mr. Wakefield has erected over his life to marvelous effect. But, in the end, it’s a stellar turn from Sharp that dots the I’s and crosses the t’s when the tear ducts begin to flow. And you realize how marvelously constructed the whole endeavor is. B+