LIVING is a British film released in 2022 directed by Oliver Hermanus and starring Bill Nighy (Love Actually, About Time, Pirates of the Carribean).
It’s a very simple and even short movie, coming in at about 1 h 42 m. It’s currently streaming on Netflix.
Set in 1953, Rodney Williams (Bill Nighy), is a senior bureaucrat for the London County Council. He’s a very somber, joyless, uninspired and uninspiring, predictable old man who has gone through life shoving one thing after another into towering piles of paperwork. It’s a metaphor for the way he has lived his life.
His failure to grieve the loss of his wife.
His neglect when it comes to connecting deeply with his adult son and his wife.
His inability to relate meaningfully to his coworkers.
His persistent tendency to procrastinate, whether it involves getting things done at work or moving deeper in his relationship with his son and his wife.
Mr. Williams’ wake-up call comes with a grim diagnosis. He has cancer. It’s terminal.
At first he contemplates dealing with the inevitability of his quickly approaching death on “his own terms,” withdrawing half his life savings and purchasing a lethal amount of sleeping meds. Unable to go through with his plan, he gives the sleeping meds to Mr. Southerland, a struggling writer he meets in a café who happens to be an insomniac.
After hearing his story, Mr. Southerland is convinced that what Williams needs is a night on the town. The pair bar hop, drink, attend a burlesque show that Williams sleeps through. The implication is poignant and profound: our deep desire for meaning and significance can’t be met by meaningless distractions. We need something more. We crave something more.
The lights begin to come on for Mr. Williams when he has a chance encounter with Miss Harris, a much younger colleague who worked in his office back in London. Williams sees in Miss Harris an innocence, beauty, grace, kindness and sense of LIFE that makes him want to live — really live.
Williams describes it like this:
“After receiving my news, I took to looking around myself a little… And that day I saw you in Piccadilly… I thought, ‘Look at her. Look at Miss Harris. If only to be alive like that for one day.’ I…I suppose I hoped you’d show me…teach me to be like you.”
There’s so much jammed into these lines.
- The need to “look around [ourselves] a little…” Far too many of us are going through life with blinders on, failing to see the love, grace and beauty all around us. Take a moment. Look around. Look out. Look…UP.
- When you find someone who is living a compelling life, ask yourself, “Why? What makes them so attractive? So compelling? So convincingly authentic?”
Through a series of events, Williams discovers that the meaning of life is in things like:
- the ability to enjoy and savor the little things like the sight and sound of children playing in a park,
- a willingness to serve others instead of simply hiding in your own pain,
- the need to take action, in the face of life’s little annoyances and inconveniences,
- and, yes, even the need to be rightly connected to God,
In one of the most poignant moments of the movie, Williams looks at Miss Harris and thoughtfully says, “When the time comes, when my Maker calls me…” He then pauses, as if he is thinking of something too personal to be put into words.
It’s interesting that I just finished reading the Book of Ecclesiastes as part of my annual Bible Reading Plan. Some believe the book to be the memoirs of Solomon. After amassing unbelievable wealth and pursuing pleasure without restraint, as Solomon approached the end of his life, this was his assessment.
“Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.” —Ecclesiastes 4:13-14 NLT
At its core, LIVING is a movie about the regrets we will all likely have when we face the reality of our own morality.
In a conversation with Miss Harris, Mr. Williams asks the very question we all need to ask.
Williams: “How did it happen? I fancy it just crept up on me. Just one day preceding the next. A small wonder I didn’t notice… what I was becoming. And then I looked at you. And I remembered… what it was like to be alive like that.”
The movie is also about not missing out on the beauty and joy of life.
In another conversation with Miss Harris, Williams asks her: “I wonder if you ever stop on the way home and watch the children playing. In the street, or in the yard. And when the time comes and their mothers call them in, they’re often reluctant. They, they get a little contrary. But that’s as it should be. Far better than to be the child you occasionally see, he’s sitting by himself in the corner not taking part, not happy, not unhappy. Merely waiting for his mother to call him in. I’ve become afraid that I might end up like that child. And I so very much do not wish to do so.”
Finally, the movie is about our need to stop procrastinating, and to take action on things that can’t be (or at least, shouldn’t be) put off another day.
Many who watch the movie will likely believe that one of the saddest things about it is the fact that Mr. Williams is left with so little time to actually live. He’s already well-advanced in years. On top of that, cancer has accelerated an already quickly approaching expiration date. But that isn’t the way I felt as I watched. I actually felt hope. The hope that comes with the awareness that regardless of how much time we have remaining, every moment can be leveraged for the glory of God and the good of others. Every moment can be used to make a difference. Even those moments when age and weakness impose limits on our abilities.
Stop procrastinating. Use the time you’ve been given.
Late in the movie as Williams’s colleagues contemplate the passing of their “friend” and consider the legacy he left, Williams’s successor, a man named Middleton, looks at his coworkers and says:
“Let’s pledge to learn from his example, this lesson he set before us. Let’s vow never again to shy away from our responsibilities. Never again to push things under the carpet… We’re going to be true to Mr. Williams memory. We’re going to get things done…”
Unfortunately, Middleton eventually forgets his commitment and succumbs to becoming the same tired, somber, joyless, uninspired and uninspiring, predictable old man that his predecessor was before his awakening.
On the other hand, near the close of the movie Miss Harris begins a romance with a young man who came on as a new hire in Mr. Williams’ office just before the events of the movie began to unfold. His name? Mr. Wakeling. (Perhaps a nod to the fact that we all have a decision to make as to whether we will procrastinate and sleepwalk our way through life or awaken to the many gifts God has given us.)
I highly recommend this movie. It’s easily in my list of Top 5 movies I’ve watched in 2023.
It is well-written and directed.
The performances, especially by Nighy (Mr. Williams) and Aimee Lou Wood (Miss Harris) are moving and memorable.
The story is important.
The take-aways can be life-changing.
Stop procrastinating.
Stop building piles of paperwork.
Stop sweeping things under the rug.
Start loving.
Start laughing.
Start forgiving.
Start…LIVING.
I close this review with a few passages of Scripture that came to mind as I watched this beautiful and thoughtful film.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
—Psalm 90:12 NIV
“I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.” —Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 NIV
“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” —Colossians 3:17