A cancer diagnosis has seen him not only withdraw half his life savings, but contemplate the unthinkable.
Normally fastidiously punctual and reliable, his failure to turn up to work leaves his colleagues confused and more than a little worried. But while on his secret seaside sojourn, Williams encounters an insomniac writer (Tom Burke), their café conversation sparking a rapport and a resolve by the normally reserved Williams to not only put his affairs in order, but “live a little” before it’s too late. Only, as he readily admits, he doesn’t know “how to live a little”.
Opportunity knocks when he encounters his young, vivacious former workmate Miss Margaret Harris (Aimee Lou Wood).
Inviting her to lunch at Fortnum and Mason’s, he laps up her tales of her new employment as a waitress, while she enjoys her Knickerbocker Glory and admits that they had given him the nickname “Mr Zombie” around the office. It’s a sobriquet he greets with a wry smile.
Unfortunately, their rendezvous is spotted by a nosy neighbour who informs Williams’ son and daughter-in-law. They are not impressed.
“She’s barely a woman, hardly a lady,” is the terse remark during the tense atmosphere that prevails over that evening’s shepherd’s pie dinner.
Still, such a scathing observation and attempt to shame him doesn’t deter Williams from seeking out Miss Harris’ company once again, this time to join him at the pictures for a screening of Cary Grant’s 1949 comedy I Was a Male War Bride.
But, as he seeks to continue their evening out with a drink, she cautions him that “someone might suppose that you are becoming infatuated”. Somewhat shocked, he assures her that’s not the case, instead clarifying that “I’d hoped you’d teach me to be like you”.
Boasting sumptuous costume and production design, South African director Oliver Hermanus’ (The Endless River) 1953-set tale evokes memories of the mid-century movies of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (A Matter of Life and Death, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp), as well as 1990s literary-inspired romantic period dramas Shadowlands and The Remains of the Day.
Of course, the latter was based on the Booker Prize-winning 1988 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, who is on screenwriting duties here. There are certain similarities between Rodney Williams and that story’s James Stevens, especially in the (James) Joycian nature of their ambitions, self-imposed constraints and repressed emotions, only there’s a catharsis here that feels just like the tonic viewers need in these increasingly troubled times.
A gorgeous orchestral soundtrack by French composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (Rocks) underscores and reflects the film’s mood, while Sex Education’s Wood is a revelation as Miss Harris. However, Living belongs to Nighy.
A nuanced, compelling and heartrending performance that deserves far more than just his first Academy Awards nomination, this may just be the role that he’ll be most remembered for (thank goodness it won’t be Love Actually’s Billy Mack anymore).
Although Brendon Fraser won the best actor Oscar for his role in The Whale, Nighy’s nomination was well deserved. The 73-year-old actor born in the British county of Surrey gave the best performance of his life in Living. — Stuff
