Parents' Guide to

Living

Movie PG-13 2022 102 minutes
Living movie poster

Common Sense Media Review

Stefan Pape By Stefan Pape , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 13+

Inspiring British drama reflects on meaning of life.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 13+

Based on 3 parent reviews

age 15+

Very slow movie, with a subtle story. We lost the teens about 20-30 minutes in, but we, adults, enjoyed it.
age 13+

Beautiful British film

Lovely film about a man making a lasting difference. Lovely poetry to the writing.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (1 ):

This moving British drama is standing on the shoulders of cinematic royalty, as an English-language remake of Akira Kurosawa's critically acclaimed Ikiru. Thankfully Living more than holds its own. Put together in the most beautiful way by South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, the director captures the clockwork synchrony of everyday life, and yet does so with such passion. The lighting, the tonality -- it's truly sumptuous cinema, and manages to be so beautiful despite the mundaneness it depicts. But then that's the point and the takeaway message: that we should all try to find the beauty in the monotony of our lives, as our hero, Nighy's Mr. Williams, tries to do as he approaches the end of his life.

What transpires is a tender film, a warm production that manages to stay on the right side of sentimentality throughout. What helps is the absorbing central performance from Nighy. In what's arguably a career-best performance from him, he's matched at every turn by the charming Wood as Margaret, Williams' ex-colleague and the film's inspiration.

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