Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light”

Empire of Light (2022)

An intimate, poetic narrative which is a coming of age story that touches on racism, mental illness and exploitation that manages to be uplifting without being vapid

After a decade of working on Bond films and the historic epic “1917”, Same Mendes’ turns to something altogether more intimate with “Empire of Light”. With an emotional score from Trent Reznor and restrained but beautiful cinematography from Roger Deakins, it tells the story of Hilary Small(Olivia Colman) living a zombie-like and lonely life working as a manager in a seaside cinema. Taking the good and bad almost as part of her routine, she blithely goes about her days like clockwork while never even stopping to actually watch any of the movies being shown. She strikes up a friendship with Stephen(Michael Ward) who joins the staff and things change both for Hilary and Stephen. The cinema itself is like a dysfunctional but amiable family but the problems of the world aren’t far and seap into the confines of the “Empire of Light”.

Colman is terrific and Michael Ward is on an equal footing with her and other veterans such as Toby Jones’ projectionist, Norman, and Colin Firth’s cinema administrator, Donald. He manages to establish Stephen as quietly intelligent and kind while also putting forward a youthful apprehension and lack of confidence. It’s a brilliant performance.

Overall, it’s quite a simple movie that manages to touch on racism, mental illness, loneliness and the progression of life. How it does so is quite subtle and isn’t overly romanticised. It’s a solid movie that manages to be uplifting without being vapid.