Living * * * *

I'm not a big fan of remakes.  Especially if the original film is recent: For instance, the other day someone asked me if I have seen  A Man Called Otto.  I said yes, but when I saw it, it was called  A Man Called Ove and set in Sweden. I would no more watch a remake of a recent film than I would go listen to a "tribute" or cover band.

I can't help thinking there is something opportunist and chauvinistic about a remake of a foreign language film. I mean, wouldn't it be more beneficial to foreign film makers and viewers to promote and praise the original, rather than re-doing it in English with big name actors? 

What's the hurry?

Living has made no secret that it is a remake of the Japanese film Ikiru.  However, the original was from sixty years ago so I will concede that changes things a lot. 

Ironically, the environment that this is set in is probably no less alien than Japan.  

Its a faithful reproduction of London in the early 1950's.  It's a world that no longer exists, with ninety nine percent of  Londoners being white English people. 

It's a world of gentlemen wearing pin stripe suits and bowler hats, going to work in crowded public servant offices where desks groan under the weight of hundreds of paper files. The desks are shunted together, with the supervisor seated at the top end. Files get stamped and moved from department to department with very little productive outcome. Staff address each other as Mr. or Miss or Mrs. even as they commute to and from work the formality continues. No one gets too personal.  

Mr. Williams (Bill Nighy) works in such a public service office. Fortunately the film moves faster than the public service files, with Mr. Williams learning early in the film of his incurable illness and the imminent ending of his life.  He is told that he has very little time left.

He responds to the news by travelling to the seaside so he can conclude things quickly. But his plans are thwarted when he meets Sutherland (Tom Burke).  A man that could be a scoundrel but turns out to be an unlikely Samaritan, giving Mr. Williams a boozy night out with visits to the sleaziest clubs that an English seaside town has to offer. In a pub he drunkenly sings the one song he knows with a trembling and moving voice.  Symbolically, Mr. Williams loses his bowler hat on this night and it is replaced with a trilby

On return to London, two things captivate Mr. Williams. One of them is the young girl who worked in his office. Miss Harris is young enough to be his granddaughter but there is nothing weird about their relationship.  He does not make any romantic overtures. He simply likes her as a person. He is enamored by her joyous approach to life. 

The other thing that Mr. Williams becomes obsessed with  is the application for a children's playground that has been on the back burner for years.  He becomes determined to push it through.  No easy task in the London Public Service. But he does it with a passion that is out of character for the public service.  He warmly thanks and praises everyone involved in the project. He even begs for its expedient completion.  

His warm, encouraging, positive attitude inspires his colleagues who swear to change their ways and follow his example.

Mr. Williams is a beautifully crafted character and much credit should go to Bill Nighy.  He is an aloof but  kindly gentleman.  He is a widower.  He does not seem to have any friends. His son and daughter-in-law live with him at his house, but they show little regard for him. He cannot bring himself to tell them of his condition but he rehearses his speech over and over.  

His memories haunt him to the point of tears - his wife, their infant son, his own mother.  He sits on park benches and takes himself to the cinema every week. In many respects he is quite unremarkable and indeed in the end his legacy is tiny and will soon be forgotten, as will the resolve of those who swore to emulate him.  And yet we feel we have met a giant.

I'll be honest, if this had been a remake of  a recent film from overseas I might have shunned it. But the original was from sixty years ago so it's not as though the makers are arrogantly white washing it for the Western market.  It's not an opportunistic remake. Living pays homage to an original that otherwise would be forgotten.

I really liked Living and would recommend it. It's not due to be released for a fortnight, but with so many  previews available we might have all seen it by then!