Directed by:
Sam MendesScreenplay:
Sam MendesCinematography:
Roger DeakinsCast:
Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Sara Stewart, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke, Crystal Clarke, Mark Ryan, Spike Leighton, Adrian McLoughlin (more)VOD (2)
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From Academy Award®-winning director and writer Sam Mendes, Empire of Light is a moving drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times. Set in and around a faded old cinema in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, it follows Hilary (Olivia Colman) a cinema manager struggling with her mental health, and Stephen (Micheal Ward), a new employee who longs to escape this provincial town in which he faces daily adversity. Both Hilary and Stephen find a sense of belonging through their unlikely and tender relationship and come to experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community. (Disney / Buena Vista)
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Sam Mendes poetic, fragile and intimate. Empire of Light is a slow-moving film that explores the travails of personal life through Roger Deakins' haunting imagery and the minimalist setting of a single coastal street with an opulent cinema. Depression, loneliness, illness, racial issues, several strong themes are outlined in this slow-moving story of a handful of people sharing their troubles in a small British town. But the whole thing strikes me as perhaps too artsy, too static and lacking in energy. Olivia Colman gives a brilliant performance, but you can't find your way to most of the characters.
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This film might not be the ultimate tribute to all those who worked in theaters like the Empire, but I really enjoyed it. Sam Mendes has crafted an intimate drama that dabbles in a bit of everything without fully committing to any one genre, yet its melancholic vibe won me over. At times it’s a nod to the operation of cinemas in 80s England, sometimes a psychological drama, occasionally a romance, and even a bit of suspense given the era it’s set in. It’s true that it’s a mix of many things, but life can be like that. There’s an unorthodox charm to it, and Toby Jones’s role is absolutely fantastic.
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