On Seeing “Living,” a Small Spiritual Classic

On Seeing “Living,” a Small Spiritual Classic

I don’t do a lot of film reviews at this blog. Mostly because the majority of the movies we go to don’t quite earn a pause to reflect on what I’d seen. Fluff, by and large. And, honestly, what I like. But this time around even I was uninterested in the new Marvel film. On Rotten Tomatoes, while some 83% of the viewers liked it, a scant 47% of the critics could stomach it. So, despite the newest super villain being introduced, we passed.

The decision of what to do fell unencumbered to Jan. Which meant we were more likely to see something more serious. And we did. And, I’m glad.

Living is a 2022 film adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese film “Ikiru.” Itself apparently based in Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” So an interesting pedigree. The screenplay was written by the Japanese-British novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro. Ishiguro is also the 2017 winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.

And. Well. What can I say? A masterpiece.

102 minutes beginning with that saturated color evoking an earlier era of film making. In 1953 a London City Council bureaucrat learns he has six months, maybe nine, to live. The film plays out from there.

A small film. But only small in the sense of the Chinese Hexegram, number 9, “the saving power of the small.”

Directed by Oliver Hermanus, staring Bill Nighy, supported by Aimee Lou Wood, and Alex Sharp. All perfectly. Which can be said of the entire cast. As Rotten Tomatoes tells us “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.”

I’ve rarely seen a film that spells out the nature of our lives so heart achingly accurately. Such an intimate exploration is a dangerous project. So many moments it could have turned saccharine. It could so easily be pretentious. Precious. Many traps in this kind of film. But it remained true. And ultimately satisfying. Soul satisfying. How often can one say that of a movie?

According to Rotten Tomatoes 87% of 250 or so viewers gave it a thumb’s up, while 92% of 192 professionals approved.

Clearly I should simply let Jan pick our movies.

I highly recommend it.

A small spiritual classic…