Living

In 1953 London, a veteran civil servant named Williams spends his days buried in paperwork at the office and his evenings alone at home, his life feeling hollow as the city slowly rebuilds after the Second World War. When a serious medical diagnosis forces him to confront how little he has done with his time, he empties his savings and travels to the coast, determined to make his remaining days mean something, though he soon finds he does not know how. An encounter with a stranger named Sutherland leads him back to the city, where a young colleague, Margaret Harris, seems to possess the vitality he has lost, and her optimism draws him toward a different way of living.

Living is a British drama directed by Oliver Hermanus, following his earlier features Beauty and Moffie, with a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro. Bill Nighy leads the cast as Williams, alongside Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke, Adrian Rawlins and Oliver Chris, with a credited cast of 37 and crew of 52. It was produced by Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen, and made on a budget of about 10 million dollars, going on to take roughly 12 million worldwide.

Critics responded warmly, with an average rating of 8 out of 10 across 223 reviews. Audiences were more reserved by comparison, rating it 7.2 out of 10 on IMDb from around 39,000 votes and 7 out of 10 on TMDB from far fewer votes.