LIVING
★★★★★
OUT 4 NOVEMBER / CERT 12A / 102 MINS
DIRECTOR Oliver Hermanus
CAST Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Tom Burke, Alex Sharp
“I took to looking around myself a little,” says Bill Nighy’s Mr Williams, in this gorgeous remake of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Ikiru. Nighy plays Mr Williams, a stiff-upper-lipped accountant in 1950s London who takes stock of his life when faced with a devastating medical diagnosis. There is some beautiful classical filmmaking from South African director Oliver Hermanus, recalling David Lean or Carol Reed, and stunning craft in Sandy Powell’s costuming and Helen Scott’s production design. But it’s Nighy’s show: face like a statue, he subtly conveys death bearing down on him in minute expressions and stately philosophising. It feels, in every sense, like the role of a lifetime.