Empire of Light Movie Review: Sam Mendes wrote and directed the British movie “Empire of Light.” The movie was made by Mendes and Pippa Harris, and it was sold by Searchlight Pictures. Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Monica Dolan, Tom Brooke, Tanya Moodie, Hannah Onslow, Crystal Clarke, Toby Jones, and Colin Firth are all in the movie as part of a large cast.
Roger Deakins was in charge of the camera work, and Lee Smith cut the movie together. The music for the movie was written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The first time people saw “Empire of Light” was at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2022. It came out in the UK on January 9, 2023. The movie is 113 minutes long and is only spoken in English.
Empire of Light Movie Review
In Sam Mendes’ look back at Britain in the early 1980s, Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward have a bittersweet romance at work.
“Empire of Light” is set in and around an old movie theatre in a seaside town in Britain. This theatre, called the Empire, is more than just the place where the movie takes place. It’s the movie’s heart, soul, guiding metaphor, and reason for being.
At the beginning of the 1980s, the Empire has fallen on hard times, just like the global power its name suggests. Even though the sun hasn’t set yet, the screens upstairs are always dark, and the once-luxurious lounge on the top floor is now mostly used by pigeons. People still come to buy popcorn and candy and see movies like “The Blues Brothers,” “Stir Crazy,” and “All That Jazz,” but the mood is one of quietly accepting defeat. Even the light is worn out.
Roger Deakins, who is the best cinematographer in the world, made that light look beautiful. His pictures have a feeling of gentle nostalgia. It’s possible to look back on a not-so-golden time with fondness, and writer and director Sam Mendes (“Revolutionary Road,” “1917”) do just that with the Empire, its workers, and the drab, sometimes brutal reality of Thatcher-era Britain.
“Empire of Light,” tells a sad story about mental illness, sexual exploitation, racist violence, and other sad things that happen in real life. Mendes, on the other hand, is not a realist like Mike Leigh or Ken Loach. “Gregory’s Girl” and “Chariots of Fire” are two British movies that are set in the right time period and are shown in the Empire. Mendes takes some of their sweet, gentle humor and heartfelt humanist charm.
Olivia Colman plays Hilary, the duty manager for the Empire, who is in charge of a group of cinema soldiers. There’s a nerdy guy, a girl who likes post-punk music, and a cranky projectionist. Stephen, a friendly young man played by Michael Ward whose college plans are on hold, soon joins them.
Hilary and her boss, Mr. Ellis, played by Colin Firth, are having a slow-moving relationship. For her, the rushed conversations in his office are part of a boring work routine and a sign of a long-term lack of happiness. Hilary’s life could always be worse, and it has been. She just got back to work after being in a mental hospital for a while after she had a breakdown. She takes lithium to keep her balance.
When Stephen comes, he wakes her up from her sleep, which is both exciting and dangerous. He seems more willing to try new things and happier than anyone else in this dirty little city, and he and Hilary become friends, which turns into something more. Hilary sees how widespread racism is when she meets angry skinheads and customers who don’t like people of different races. Together, they help a hurt pigeon get better.
For a while, their romance happens in a quiet, everyday way that lets you see how well Colman and Ward play their parts. Philip Larkin, a poet Hilary likes as much as W.H. Auden, asked, “What are days?” His answer was both sad and beautiful. “We live in the days.” The routines of working at the Empire and the little bits of free time that come up add a touch of quiet magic, as if a little bit of big-screen magic made its way into the break room, the concession stand, and the box office.
The spell will break, and when it does, “Empire of Light” starts to fall apart. Mendes raises the stakes and speeds up the plot, putting Hilary and Stephen through a series of crises that make the movie feel heavy with earnest self-importance. Something to Say is a movie that at first seemed to be about the lives and feelings of its characters and an unlikely but touching relationship between two people who don’t get along with the rest of the world.
The message is unclear and soft, like a Milk Dud at the bottom of the box, and the movie chews on it for a long time. The emotional end of “Empire of Light” comes a long time before the story actually ends. Things keep happening as if Mendes were trying to talk himself and us through ideas that hadn’t been fully thought out. There isn’t much to learn about mental illness, race relations, middle age, or work, even though the author tries hard to show that she cares about all of these things.
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“Empire of Light” is really about the pleasures of pop music from the 1980s, good English poetry, and, most of all, movies. The grumpy projectionist, like everyone else at the Empire, likes Stephen. He shows him how to work the machinery, which makes the young man and any old people in the audience who remember the sights and sounds of celluloid gasp in amazement. It’s lovely and sad to think about the velvet ropes and soft seats, the beam of light, and the whirring.
Movies have always been able to do more than just make people feel good. They can also upset, seduce, provoke, and anger people. Mendes doesn’t really care about any of that here, even though the story of Hilary and Stephen might have been better told in a less sweet way.
Final Words
Empire of Light is a bittersweet look back at Britain in the early 1980s, set in an old movie theatre in a seaside town. Empire of Light is a story about mental illness, sexual exploitation, racist violence, and other sad things that happen in real life. Mendes’ “Empire of Light” is a movie about the pleasures of pop music, poetry, and movies, but it doesn’t really care about mental illness, race relations, middle age, or work.
