Still Life

Eddie Marsan is on good form in this sensitive drama about council worker "May". He is tasked with dealing with the affairs of those people who die without a family. He's a meticulous chap, fastidious even, and he takes great care to investigate as thoroughly as he can trying to find someone to take possession of their heirlooms and to attend the rudimentary cremation that the local borough provides. He is midway through the case of "Billy Stoke" when he is informed that he is to be made redundant. Instead of just packing up, though, he asks for some extra time to try and piece together the jigsaw puzzle left by this man - and that sees him travel to meet "Kelly" (Joanne Froggatt) - his long estranged daughter. As with so many of the stories contained here, we hear a tale of neglect and abuse followed by a long period of non-contact, and Marsan plays his part delicately as he allows his character to provide a poignant conduit for relatives to think on their best and final course of action at a time when maybe grudges are best forgotten. There's an honesty to this because they aren't always - there are no rose-tinted windows here, especially at the end (which I have to say, the irony of which I simply didn't like). This film serves to put many things into perspective and might be something that could give folks whose family's are no longer part of their lives a chance to consider getting letting bygones be bygones. There is something poignant about the only mourner at a funeral being an official doing a day's work! It's an interesting investment vehicle for RAI too, garnering a David nomination but nothing at all from BAFTA.