Une belle fin

If I had to pick the most underrated actor in the whole of the movie business I would go for Eddie Marsan . A prolific actor who everyone has seen in one film or another and who never gives a bad performance and Still Life is the perfect example.

In this , Eddie plays a employee who dedicates his life to tracking down the next-of-kin and arranging funerals for his community's unclaimed dead.

It's a performance that is understated yet brilliant . You totally believe this man , who seems a little bit OCD and loves his job , that he will do what he can for these dead people and their families even though his own life outside of work is pretty non existent.

It's a very British film but I have no doubt it will appeal to any audience. It's obviously sad at times but it's also uplifting and thought provoking.

It's the best film I've seen in quite a while and I highly recommended it.

This is a great film, absorbing from start to finish. The lead actor Eddie Marsan (playing John May) is outstanding.

Let me first say that this is not a comedy. It has a dark theme, loneliness and death. May works for the council and his delightful job is to track down relatives of people who have died alone. Sometimes though these people die alone for a good reason and so May is often the sole attendee at the funeral. May is so compassionate that he tries to replace the missing family and friends by writing obituaries based on what he finds at the deceased 's residence. It's really touching and sincere. May himself is also a bit of a loner. The scenes of how people live and the way they talk about each other is beautifully done and so English - fish and chip shops, the pub, the banter with old colleagues of victims. Marsan is just superb. The other characters are minor compared to him but still make excellent contributions (Jumbo makes a few serious comments about war, Mary in the chip shop helps us see a better side of a tough guy, the same guy's daughter gives us another view again). I really like the way the story develops and found the ending very satisfying and fitting. Go see it.

Movie addicts have an affection for boring England. But the same goes for the British bureaucrat. The last one for whom the word Duty isn't empty.

In this version he works for the council, fixing funerals for the lonely. Nobody will attend, except for this official and the priest. It's Eleanor Rigby for real.

The last case, because his boss doesn't think he's efficient enough, makes this official trying to get in contact with the daughter of a deceased. To have at least one from a family at the funeral. It doesn't go like he expected, but there's suddenly an opening. Also for boring England.

A great movie about discipline, responsibility and the importance of performing at your best whatever task you have to carry out. An important message in times of complain, protest and nihilism. The director powerfully uses images more and better than the dialogue. In this respect, he stands aside the great masters of the past (one name: Alfred Hitchcock, quite explicitly quoted in the movie) and won't fail to please all the true movie lovers. All actors are great, but it is the compassionate eye of the director that wins the scene. The soundtrack is also adding to the atmosphere and does its job remarkably well. Should I add that I truly enjoyed this little masterpiece?

This is a movie that centers on loneliness and living a passive, uneventful life. The setting of the story is a bit unusual but simple, so what makes the movie interesting is the exaggerated sensibility of the main character. The main character is so compassionate and pitiful at the same time that viewers can't help caring about him and wanting to know what happens to him. The acting from all cast is convincing, the main actor especially did a superb job. The movie is slow paced but the mood is so nicely built that I didn't feel bored, on the contrary, I was amazed by the small details and the directors' sensitivity. There are many beautiful still shots of very ordinary things throughout the movie, like the title of the movie suggests. Some scenes are so pathetically real that they become funny. It is overall a good movie and it makes you want to do something about all the loneliness there is in the world.