Life Goes On

Bluesky

Most people hope that the end of their lives will be peaceful. That’s not uncommon; but more and more often these days, we are dying in hospital, and that can be anything but. Bill (David Bradley) isn’t exactly thrilled about the dying thing to begin with, but what aggravates him far more is that nobody will leave him alone. First he has to put up with the noisy birthday celebrations of the woman in the corner of his hospital ward; then with his daughter coming to lecture him; then with a clumsy nurse who spills urine on the floor; and then with the world’s most insufferably twee guitarist, who bounces onto the ward hoping to cheer everybody up. It just will not stop.

When one is stuck in bed with nothing to do and no particular purpose to existence, the days can blur into one another. Bill is pretty sure, however, that they’re not supposed to repeat in exactly the same sequence. He is, he fears, stuck in “one of those infinite time loop thingies” – but when the woman in the bed alongside his gets stuck in it too, they realise that they can do whatever they want and get away with it, because events will simply reset. The question is, can anything that they do lead them to freedom?

Daniel Audritt and Kat Butterfield’s Oscar-qualifying short has a smart premise but risks becoming somewhat twee itself. It is saved by the ever-dependable Bradley, who makes Bill’s determination to hold on to his righteous misery sympathetic, even endearing, yet who also has the skill to convince, without being mawkish, as a man who has much deeper feelings that he doesn’t know how to express. He’s entertaining throughout, even at times when the narrative becomes heavy with sentiment.

The film’s principal weakness is that it doesn’t fully grasp the experience of being severely ill or disabled. There’s an underlying assumption that these are people waiting to die, who will experience that as a relief, rather than people who, if they’re struggling, need to make some adjustments and get over their fear of life. Its elderly characters are framed as inherently tragic, which is not only out of kilter with reality, but feels out of step with the central message that they are individuals with varied reactions to what they are presented with. Butterfield is herself a hospice nurse, yet one gets the sense that the filmmakers relate more to the daughter than to Bill himself.

Despite this difficulty, there is a fair bit to enjoy about this handsomely produced short, and Bradley would be worth watching regardless.

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