Still Life, 2013
John (Eddie Marsan) works in a human services department, tracking down the families of unclaimed deceased people and making final arrangements when those families cannot be found. When an impending merger and budget cuts threaten his job, John takes on one last case. As John works through the details of the dead man's life---including tracking down his estranged daughter, Kelly (Joanne Froggatt)--he begins to open himself up more to the world around him.
Why do we help other people? Two days before Christmas, I was driving to my family's home when I saw the aftermath of a recent car accident. On the side of the road, a woman was laying in a ditch. Other cars were just driving by, but I had to stop. I had to stop because I couldn't help thinking what it would be like if it were me in that ditch and all these indifferent people just passed me by.
John does his job with a passion and precision because he identifies with the dead. Alone, with no family of his own and only casual acquaintances, John is fighting a battle for others that he knows he will not be able to fight for himself when the time comes: the battle to be remembered and acknowledged. I particularly liked the sequence where John wrote a eulogy for a woman who died alone. To John, it seems important to show that even solitary lives can be celebrated.
It is in his final task, trying to track down the loved ones of a man who honestly doesn't sound like he was always very pleasant to be around, that John begins to make connections with others. John is presented as being very socially isolated. His mannerisms and habits seem to hint at something like Asperger's or just extreme social awkwardness. But as he interacts with the different acquaintances of the dead man, we see John begin to accept things from them. A fish. A beer. And, finally, a social invitation.
John's internal journey is mirrored in the world around him. In the early sequences, the city seems borderline abandoned. The colors are cold and drained. But as the movie goes on, there are more people around, and the colors become more lush.
Marsan's performance is sympathetic and engaging. He resists the urge to make John overly twitchy or robotic, as sometimes happens when actors try to portray such a character.
I was very torn on the final act of the film. It seems a bit contrived that
WARNING: spoilers below
John gets asked out for, like, probably the first time in 10 years, and the next day he gets hit by a bus. I understand the impact of seeing the full funeral that John orchestrated with his different interviews, contrasting with John's totally empty service. It's definitely a gut-punch, I'm just not totally sure that it's earned. It partly doesn't make sense to me. John clearly made an impression on a lot of people, and they didn't know he'd died? Or ask about him? The mechanics of this bothered me.
John gets asked out for, like, probably the first time in 10 years, and the next day he gets hit by a bus. I understand the impact of seeing the full funeral that John orchestrated with his different interviews, contrasting with John's totally empty service. It's definitely a gut-punch, I'm just not totally sure that it's earned. It partly doesn't make sense to me. John clearly made an impression on a lot of people, and they didn't know he'd died? Or ask about him? The mechanics of this bothered me.
A very sweet film, and a chance to post one of my favorite quotes:
"But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”