Lantern openings: Studies of life’s very meaning

Above : Bill Nighy stars in “Living,” which is slated to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre. (Photo/Sony Pictures Classics)

Sometimes, though not that often, movies open that open on the same day share similar themes. That seems to be the case with a pair of movies that are scheduled to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre .

Not that the drama “Living” and the documentary “Geographies of Solitude” have that much in common. The former, though, is about a man who seeks to discover the meaning of his life, while the latter focuses on a woman whose living arrangement provides her all the meaning she seems to need.

“Living” : Bill Nighy plays a strait-laced 1950s-era London businessman who, after receiving a dire prognosis, decides to step away from work and try to figure out what life is all about. Directed by Oliver Hermanus, the film is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film “Ikiru.”

Deborah Ross of The Spectator wrote, “It is as profoundly and deeply felt as the original and as heartbreakingly tender. It asks the same question, but this time with Englishness, bowler hats, the sweet trolley at Fortnum’s and Bill Nighy. Really, what more could you want?”

“Geographies of Solitude” : Documentary filmmaker Jacquelyn Mills studies the life and work of naturalist Zoe Lucas , a longtime resident of Nova Scotia’s Sable Island.

Ben Kenigsberg of the New York Times wrote, “Seemingly the island’s only human inhabitant, Lucas introduces Mills to the area’s life cycles, lifting part of a horse carcass to show insects feeding off it or explaining how even a small amount of litter can start the growth of a dune. Yet it is to the great credit of ‘Geographies of Solitude’ that it never feels expository: It turns an ecology lesson, and an account of a noble, steadfast, single-minded pursuit, into art.”

I’ll update as the week progresses.