Movie Review: Empire of Light
Every year around this time, we tend to get movies that feel geared toward the Oscars and awards season. Prestige pictures featuring award-winning directors, actors, writers, and crew members telling a story that feels dramatic or important all for the sake of winning awards. While some of these movies see success at the Oscars, many have failed, whether it be a lack of or zero nominations, a failed box office, a low critical reception, or any combination of these.
My pick for this year’s failed Oscar-bait film is Empire of Light. The film features an Oscar-winning director, actor, actress, composer, and cinematographer while telling a story that is deeply personal to the director’s life. Despite this, the movie is a dull and disappointing experience.
Empire of Light tells the story of Hilary (Olivia Colman), a lonely woman living in a coastal English town in the early 1980s and working at the local cinema. Hilary doesn’t have much to look forward to in her life. She will randomly hook up with the theater manager (Colin Firth) in his office, but she aimlessly goes about her days with little to no excitement coming from them. When Stephen (Micheal Ward), a young, Black student trying to get into university, starts working at the theater, the two have a connection that sparks an unspoken romance. This lights a spark in Hilary and makes it feel like she now had a purpose in life. She feels more confident, starts standing up for herself, and has a reason for getting up in the morning. But with racial tensions rising in England and the age difference between Hilary and Stephen causing trouble in their relationship, Hilary begins to spiral out of control.
Where Empire of Light failed for me was that it always felt misguided and never knew what story it wanted to tell. Hilary is at the center of the film, but we never get her full story about why she is lonely, why she is on medication, and why her mental state is the way that it is. We are given hints throughout the film (something to do with a past relationship) but her story gets bogged down by everything else happening in the film. Empire of Light also touches on Stephen dealing with a rising group of racists in their town, though that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should have. There is also an attempted message about the power and magic of cinema, which is barely explored and never lands, even with it trying to be the film’s big finale. Mendes had a lot he wanted to put in Empire of Light, yet he never was fully able to balance it to make a cohesive story.
The most interesting aspect of the film, and the aspect I wish the film focused on more, was that of the movie theater Hilary and Stephen work in. This small, quaint little theater is full of unique personalities and characters, and we get moments where we see how everyone works together and how they bond together. They show marquee movies, like The Blue’s Brothers, and Raging Bull, and even get to host the premiere of Chariots of Fire, to a crowd featuring political figures and celebrities. We also see Stephen learning how the run the projector and the projection booth by Norman (Toby Jones), who seems to have lived his entire life in this theater. Maybe this is an entirely different movie, but everything in the movie theater worked for me, and had the film focused more on this aspect, maybe the love letter to cinema part might have landed harder, thus making the film have more emotion.
What’s frustrating about Empire of Light is that, despite never coming fully together, a lot of the aspects of the film worked very well. Colman gives a really strong performance that showcases her charm, humor, and emotional range. The supporting ensemble is excellent, with Ward and Jones standing out. The cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins is stunning and the score by Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is tremendous and up there with the best of the year. Empire of Light is like having a basketball team with a ton of superstars yet has a coach who doesn’t know how to handle it. Even though Mendes pulled from his own life experiences and wrote the screenplay for Empire of Light, he can’t quite handle everything he wants to say, thus wasting his incredibly talented cast and crew and making a disappointing slog.
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