Eddie Marsan’s dead end job provides a uniquely rewarding experience in Still Life

STILL Life: A story about death, loneliness and life’s squandered chances proves unexpectedly warm and comforting.

Eddie Marsan in a scene from the film Still Life. Palace Films.

WHAT’S in a name? In the case of Still Life, just about everything.

There is a static, stoic grace to this picture that is quite unlike anything else in cinemas right now.

The camera moves only when it absolutely must. Same goes for lead actor Eddie Marsan, who pares back every aspect of his performance to a blatantly bare minimum.

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However, the spartan structure of Still Life is not designed to shock or chill the viewer. Instead, the film builds carefully to become an unusually warm and comforting experience: quite an achievement for a story where death, loneliness and life’s squandered chances are the prevailing themes explored.

Marsan plays John May, a British council worker with an unusual job description. If someone in his local area dies with no known next of kin, it is left to Mr May to “make the necessary arrangements”.

After 22 years in this delicate position, this quiet, solitary man has transformed his vocation into something approaching an art form.

Marsan’s character searches for clues about the dead to ensure they have an appropriate send-off.

His clients may have suffered the ignominy of dying alone and unwanted, but John is not about to allow this to be the last word on whatever life they lived.

So John spends his spare time combing through any available clues the deceased have left behind — photographs, letters, music, clothes — and composes a funeral service to bid them farewell from this world.

Invariably, John and a local priest are the only attendees at these beautifully sincere send-offs.

In the wrong hands, a film like Still Life could press too hard for an easy emotional response from audiences.

<i>Downton Abbey </i>star Joanne Froggatt also appears in <i>Still Life</i>.

Instead, the restraint and composure maintained by director Uberto Pasolini — filtered through the achingly precise acting of Marsan — keeps everything heading in a uniquely rewarding direction.

If there is one distinct flaw in evidence here, it could be the ending. Of course, that cannot be discussed in any detail, but the ungainly final scenes do risk losing the approval of some viewers after working so hard to win them over.

■ Still Life screens in advance previews this weekend, and opens in full release next Thursday

Still Life (M)

Director: Uberto Pasolini (Machan)

Starring: Eddie Marsan, Joanne Froggatt, Karen Drury, Andrew Buchan

Verdict: Three-and-a-half stars. Departing is such sweet sorrow

Originally published as Eddie Marsan’s dead end job provides a uniquely rewarding experience in Still Life