Living

Grade: B

Bill Nighy has had a long career, with credits going back to 1976, but I think we can all agree on the role that really put him on the map: caustic aging rock singer Billy Mack in Love Actually. Now South African-born director Oliver Hermanus, who was only 20 when Love Actually came out, has directed Nighy to a Best Actor Oscar nomination with Living. When I heard that Nighy’s character receives a cancer diagnosis and is given 6 to 9 months, I envisioned him going into full Billy Mack mode: losing his filter, raising hell, and living it up in the time he has left. I wasn’t expecting the calmness, sweetness, and restraint in Nighy’s performance, which is different from anything I’ve seen him do.

Living is also a unique kind of movie. It takes place in 1950s London, back when people smoked everywhere, including on the train and at the office. It looks and sounds like it could have been filmed then, too. Nighy plays Mr. Williams, the boss of a small office of 5 or 6 people, who sit together in a crude circle of desks, with Williams at the head. There is one woman here (the delightful Aimee Lou Wood), who is sometimes the object of comments from the men that would never fly these days. Nighy’s Mr. Williams is a man of few words. Curt and quiet. Maybe a little bit frosty, but not mean or unreasonable.

There is still about 25% more movie left after his last scene. Hermanus does a great job taking us back to this simpler time, with Living, a simple movie that ruffles up usually unthought thoughts about our own mortality. In a season where so many films are exceeding the 3 hour mark with everything they could possibly fit, Living is a humble movie that leaves us wanting more instead of less. Aimee Lou Wood is a scene-stealer, and I’m sure we will be seeing her again. But carrying everything is Bill Nighy, age 73. He makes the movie when a lesser performance could have broken it, and made it devolve into silliness. What a pretty singing voice he has, too. He has a hypnotic soft-spokenness that will make you lean in and listen. He’s all over this character. You might say he feels it in his fingers. He feels it in his toes.

Grade: B