SLIFF 2014 Review – STILL LIFE

STILL LIFE screens at 6:55pm Saturday November 22nd at the Plaza Frontenac Theater as part of the ST. Louis International Film Festival

Review by Dana Jung.

In art and photography, the term “still life” refers to a picture of inanimate objects frozen in time. There is no story, no sense of who the objects may belong to, or where they came from, or what may happen to them next. They are just there, possibly never having any human contact at all. The wonderful new film STILL LIFE takes the concept of things seemingly without purpose or meaning, and creates a stirring portrait surprisingly full of emotional depth.

John (Eddie Marsan) is a dedicated civil servant whose job it is to arrange the funeral services for those poor souls who die alone, without immediate family or even friends to say final farewells to them. John is very thorough in his work, selecting the music, writing the eulogies, and even attending each service personally. He also does some tracing of individuals, trying to track down long lost relatives. However, even when John successfully locates an estranged son or daughter, he finds that there are reasons his cases die alone: anger, abandonment, and other hard feelings cause rifts between people that are usually irreparable.

Director Uberto Pasolini establishes John’s life and work in some nicely composed opening scenes. The script also provides some wry touches of humor as the idea of looking through a recently deceased’s personal effects is darkly surreal at best. But there is more to Pasolini’s tale than a quirky character study. When John loses his job due to downsizing to make room for more modern, impersonal practices in dealing with people who die alone, John decides to pursue one final case to locate a man’s missing daughter. As he conducts his investigation, he finds that the deceased lead quite a colorful life, even though he was an imperfect man as well as an actual criminal.

Marsan is perfectly cast as John. An excellent character actor (WORLD’S END, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN), Marsan is probably best known as the belligerent Inspector Lestrade on the BBC’s SHERLOCK HOLMES series. Quiet and unassuming, Marsan makes John a likable, slightly eccentric fellow who keeps a photo album full of the photographs of people who have passed on because he actually cares. John is also the ideal vehicle for Pasolini to develop the film’s themes of the importance of staying connected to those you love, and to never become “still” or complacent, because life may just pass you by. Mortality is something we all have to deal with eventually, and this thoughtful and poignant film’s final scenes pack an emotional punch that will stay with you. It reminds us that life is fleeting, so appreciate its fullness each and every day.