Film Review - Living (2023)

Living stars Bill Nighy as Mr Williams a long serving civil servant in 1953 London who learns one day after work that he has only a few months to live and he is someone who has done the right thing and served his country in War most likely (it isn’t mentioned but I assume he did) and raised a family and went to work every day for much of his life but one day he sees an old work colleague of his Ms Harris (Aimee Lou Wood) and he wants to spend time with her and take in her youthful exuberance before his end comes.

Living is very good and Bill Nighy well earned his Academy Award nomination for his work in this film, though at times he is soft spoken you get a certain joy from seeing him on screen and remember roles he did like Shaun of the Dead where he was very good as he is here, also good is Lou Wood as Ms Harris the young girl who worked for him and brings him out of his shell for what time he has left feeling his son has his own life and it isn’t right to tell him he’s sick.

The film also does a very good job of mixing in old footage of 1950’s London with the recreation the film itself does with the old trains/offices/pubs it all looks nicely done and the use of the old 1950s London footage is good as well and I’m sure helped the filmmakers save on trying to recreate the exteriors of London at that time which would not have been easy or cheap to do.

And so that was Living and I really liked it mainly due to Nighy’s performance, 3 out of 5.