This British remake of the Japanese classic, Ikiru, scripted by the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, is a moving experience.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 18, 2024

A singular moment that comes riding on such a lifelike performance from Nighy that it doesn’t seem like acting at all.

| Apr 3, 2023

The movie is a slow-burn that never accelerates but Bill Nighy’s performance makes it a compelling experience.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 19, 2023

The film itself is like eating a rich dessert: you marvel at all the constituent parts, but when it’s over, you may have regrets. It is lush and richly textured, like the old colour footage of London that we see in the credits, but just a little pushy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 16, 2023

A little movie about big topics, Living takes on nothing less than life itself and features a quiet, note-perfect performance from Bill Nighy.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 27, 2023

The quietly powerful Living defies expectations at every turn.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 26, 2023

Living is even further removed from the The Death of Ivan Ilyich than Kurosawa's film. It is even smaller and more intimate, and much of its suppressed wonder comes from a career-best performance from Nighy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 26, 2023

Hermanus' film is as reserved as its main character. It draws us in by viewing Williams at a respectful remove, in the same way a whisper encourages us to lean in to hear.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 20, 2023

What I appreciate about this movie is how it's really about inertia... and it doesn't pretend inertia is easy to defeat.

| Jan 18, 2023

I love this film. Probably one of my favorites of the year.

| Jan 18, 2023

Like the best of novels — one of Ishiguro’s, for example — it creates a tiny world to get lost in, one whose faces and shadows and sunlight linger with you, ever after you’ve returned to your own.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 17, 2023

[It] should not work. Yet it does, ultimately, thanks to the magnificent talents of its leading man, Bill Nighy.

| Jan 16, 2023

Without Nighy’s refined performance as Mr. Williams, Living’s lasting impact would be fleeting, but his embodiment of revival, despite incurable limitations, gives this film an unlikely opening to redemption.

| Jan 14, 2023

Nighy makes it look effortless; he gives an Oscar-worthy performance that made me cry almost as much as Takashi Shimura did in Kurosawa’s classic.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 12, 2023

A worthy reimagining of Kurosawa’s drama—and one that features, courtesy of star Bill Nighy, as superb a performance as you’re likely to see in 2022.

| Jan 11, 2023

Throughout, Bill Nighy carries the film effortlessly on his slender shoulders, reminding us of why he's an international treasure.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 6, 2023

“Living” gets where it needs to go, and gets its characters where they need to be, in its own good time.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 4, 2023

Living mostly avoids sappiness. And it shows an actor at the peak of his powers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 4, 2023

Rather than shake us to our core like Ikiru, Living teaches us a life lesson we can all agree on. It's like an Afterschool Special for grownups — a very good one, mind you.

| Jan 3, 2023

This wise and moving drama is an existential journey that celebrates learning how to live life, in all its fleeting beauty.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2022