Living

Bill Nighy gives what could be the best performance of his career in director Oliver Hermanus's superbly rendered, visually resplendent remake of Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952). Brilliantly reimagined by Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, this thoughtful drama is an exploration of reawakening and redemption. Told he only has months left to live, stiff upper-lipped, joyless bureaucrat Williams (Nighy) decides to make the best of the time he has left without the faintest idea how. The vintage 1950s look, complete with evocative archive London footage and Academy ratio lensing, adds to the atmospheric style, and there is engaging support from Tom Burke and Sex Education's Aimee Lou Wood. But it's Nighy's subtle and reflective transition that makes this moving elegy on life's values truly soar.