Empire of Light (Sam Mendes, 2022)
Empire of Light is a sweet and mostly satisfying ode to cinema. But the Sam Mendes movie starring Olivia Colman also explores more serious themes like racism and psychological trauma.
The movie takes place in the British seaside resort of Margate, county Kent. The 1980’s are just getting underway and cinema manager Hilary (Olivia Colman) is back at the Empire Cinema after a nervous breakdown the year before.
There is also a new employee, Stephen (Micheal Ward), who wants to be an architect but feels he is being rejected from university on the basis of his skin colour.
The couple strike up a friendship and try to help each other the best they can with the problems they face in life, even though their own relationship is also a mixture of highs and lows.
Colman and Ward are both terrific in their roles, while the supporting actors nicely round out the cast. Colin Firth is there as the Cinema’s very sleazy general manager. While Toby Jones has a small but instrumental role as the Empire’s projectionist.
Empire of Light is part of a long tradition of ‘odes to cinema’, which has spawned classics like Cinema Paradiso and The Last Picture Show, and only last year gave us Spielbergs The Fabelmans and Damien Chazelle’s Babylon.
In all, it is a beautiful production, with great cinematography by the venerated Roger Deakins, the only one from cast and crew to receive an Oscar nomination for their work on the movie.
Which is perhaps a bit disappointing for a Sam Mendes movie, who won a fair number of Academy Awards with American Beauty and 1917.
The movie also boasts a lovely production design, which gives the Empire Cinema a very striking look. And I love the way Mendes incorporated both films (like Stir Crazy and Being There) and music (from Bob Dylan to The Specials) in his movie.
The writing though is a bit more uneven. Maybe it’s because Mendes didn’t just direct the movie, but also wrote the script, a first for him.
The storylines come together nicely, but a lot of the dialogue is a little too on the nose for me. It’s not a dealbreaker, for sure, but next time a bit more subtext (and a little less text) would make for an even more satisfying film.