Living, rated PG-13
***

I was not aware of this film until reading Brett McCracken’s annual article of his top films, on which Living was listed. Based on his recommendation, my wife and I decided to watch the film, and we were glad we did.
The film is a British drama English language adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 Japanese film Ikiru (To Live), which itself was partly inspired by the 1886 Russian novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. Living was directed by Oliver Hermanus.   
Mr. Williams, played by Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest), is a senior London County Council bureaucrat in 1953 London. He lives a lonely life, taking the train to and from the city each day. He routinely sits at his desk in the Public Works department, surrounded by piles of paperwork. A group of women petition the council to have a site developed into a children’s playground. Williams’ newest employee Mr. Wakeling, played by Alex Sharp (The Trial of the Chicago 7), is assigned to accompany them with their petition from department to department, eventually ending up back at Williams’ desk, who adds the petition to his pile of paperwork, likely never to be addressed again.

All of this changes when Williams receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. He does not tell his son Michael or his daughter in law Fiona, who live with him, about the diagnosis. Instead, he withdraws half of his life savings and goes to a seaside resort town, where he meets Sutherland, played by Tom Burke, an insomniac writer. Sutherland then takes Williams out for a wild night on the town.
With that out of his system, Williams returns to London where he runs into a former team member Miss Margaret Harris, played by Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education), who took a new position at a restaurant while Williams was away. Slowly we see their friendship grow as the two take walks and dine in restaurants. At the same time, Williams is inspired to do good before he dies.
Nighy is excellent as Mr. Williams. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his performance. Kazuo Ishiguro also received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Content concerns include some drunkenness and exotic dancing.
Living is a well-acted film that shows how Rodney Williams was inspired to change his life for the better (though there is no mention of God), in the time he had left after a terminal cancer diagnosis.