Bill Nighy’s performance in “Living” is sublime. This is brilliantly understated work on his part. The 73-year-old actor, best known for his scene-stealing work in 2003’s “Love Actually,” absolutely deserves to get the first Oscar nomination of his career. Nighy plays an ordinary man, reduced to a mundane office routine and a background existence, who learns that he’s terminally ill. Oliver Hermanus’ remake of Kurosawa’s “Ikiru” could have easily been botched, but there’s something spiritually uplifting about the retelling of the story. Despite being given the dire diagnosis, our main protagonist all of a sudden feels more alive and driven that he has in decades. Yes, it can sometimes feel eerily similar to Kurosawa’s near 60-year-old film, but the performances, not to mention DP Jamie Ramsay’s sublimely old-school colors, carry it forward. Hermanus’ direction is purposely subdued and patiently executed. It’s a contemplative character study that gets to the spirit of Kurosawa’s masterpiece. [B/B+]
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