We're back with a mission. The Oscar nominations have been announced and, as has been customary these last several years, I've seen only a handful of them. But this year, I will be playing catchup in time to make accurate predictions ahead of Hollywood's biggest night...assuming it's still Hollywood's biggest night.
Full disclosure, my family plays a little game every year where we all make our predictions and the person who guesses right the most gets to choose a place for us all to meet up for dinner. So you could say the stakes are pretty high.
As a writer, I've decided the first movies I'll be knocking off my list will be in the screenplay categories and we're starting with a little British film called Living.
Briefly, and Without Spoilers
Living follows the final days of a public servant, Mr. Williams (Bill Nighy). After receiving a terminal diagnosis, Williams realizes how much of his life he's spent at a desk and begins searching for something a bit more.
Living is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (based on the Japanese movie Ikiru, originally written by Akira Kurosawa, adapted by Kazuo Ishiguro) and Nighy is nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
A Coming of Age Story (Spoilers Ahead!!)
There is a particular coming of age story that we all seem to find very wholesome, and that's the story of an older person suddenly realizing they're running out of time and haven't truly lived life yet so they go on a magical adventure with a young person and discover the meaning of life.
And it's good. I think we all like this kind of story very much. I think what sets Living apart from other stories like this is that we don't actually see a renewed energy until he's forging ahead on his own.
His first endeavor involves a boisterous night out with a young writer, named Sutherland (Tom Burke), and by the end of the night, it becomes very apparent that this level of living is a little too much for him. More importantly, I think Sutherland starts to realize this as well. He witnesses Williams become very ill toward the end of the night and seems to understand that, while the whirlwind night may have been well-intentioned, he romanticized the evening a bit. That perhaps at the beginning of the night, Sutherland considered himself the savior of the evening, helping Mr. Williams "live a little." But that the Mr. Williams' reality is still dark.
So then Mr. Williams encounters a young (former) employee, Margaret Harris (Aimee Lou Wood), whose company is a bit more reeled in and he seems to enjoy this, enough to ask Harris to continue to spend time with him (more on that later). And while he seems happier and more comfortable in these interactions, he's still very much relying on her youth to rejuvenate him.
But it turns out, it isn't Sutherland or Harris who put a pep in his step, but a group of women who have been petitioning to turn a dirty courtyard into a playground. The project he'd tossed aside in an earlier scene suddenly became his unequivocal final mission on earth, and I think this is what makes Williams' coming of age story so effective. That ultimately, he's the one to discover for himself what living life to the fullest means for him. I'm not sure you can get a playground built that quickly, but I don't work in the public sector, so maybe that gut feeling is wrong.
Which I think is an important lesson. Not the playground thing. If you ask a group of people what it means to live life to the fullest, they'll all give you a different answer. Because a full life means something different for everyone. It's good to try new things and experiment, but ultimately, it's better to listen to yourself and what makes you happy than to try and mimic the life of someone you assume is happy in hopes you can feel the same.
And Also
Bill Nighy's performance is very good. There's a particular scene toward the beginning, just after he learns of his prognosis, where his life seems to be flashing before his eyes. Yes, it's a bit of an expository tool so we'll sympathize with Williams and understand why he is the way he is, but Nighy's performance in that scene makes it one of the standout moments of the movie.
The recurring theme of the Scottish song and him harkening back to his own youth offers a beautiful, simple connection to days gone by for him. And such an interesting way to connect a moment of deep depression and a moment of total acceptance and peace, effectively bookending his journey through the stages of grief.
The relationship between Williams and Harris is also a shining moment in the movie. And while sets aren't really my forte, I loved the sets of this movie. They created the perfect atmosphere every time and were fun to look at. But fun in a realist way. Not a Willy Wonka way.
Anyway.
Ah Yes, the Angry Wife Trope
Alright, there were some things I wasn't thrilled about. The nagging, angry, inconsiderate wife, in this case in the form of a daughter-in-law. Do we still need this character in modern cinema? Aren't there better ways to create conflict?
Williams' daughter-in-law, Fiona (Patsy Ferran) doesn't seem to care for Williams very much and pushes her husband, Michael (Barney Fishwick), to confront Williams about a few things, including his relationship with Miss Harris and selling the house, or something about money. And it ultimately becomes a way to show just how much Michael and Williams can't (or won't) connect as a father or son. Williams doesn't tell Michael about his illness and Michael never confronts Williams about the things he's apparently supposed to confront him about. And frankly, Fiona doesn't even make an appearance at the funeral, so her only role was to bring out these characteristics in this characters. And of course to nag. Which I think is why these characters really don't work. They're not real people, they're tools to help flesh out other characters or explain plot points or something else that has nothing to do with developing them as a character. And then eventually they disappear or get their comeuppance because they're supposed to be annoying. And that's the exact role that Fiona played.
She's also part of this weird conflict that gets introduced about Williams and Harris looking like a couple? And how indecent it is? Okay sure, I can concede that even in modern times, an older man dating a young woman is still very taboo and is often met with judgement, but it's also not the first relationship I think anyone thinks of when they see and old man and a young woman. I see the (one) neighbor knowing he doesn't have young relatives and that it's suspicious, but when Harris becomes concerned about people whispering, it seems odd. Wouldn't everyone assume they're grandfather and granddaughter? Is there something I'm missing?
I also feel like it didn't add anything. That if you'd removed that conflict, it would have been almost the same movie. I'm not sure what the point of introducing that was.
If It's Your Cup of Tea, It's a Good Cup of Tea
Having said all that, I still think Living is a great movie. Keep in mind, it's very British. It's got that leisurely pace to it and is more about characters than a thrilling plot line of intrigue and explosions, which not everyone likes, and I can appreciate that. But if you like those kinds of films, it's a good one to watch.
Comments