British director Sam Mendes has tackled through many genres; war (“1917”), romance (“Revolutionary Road”), crime drama (“Road to Perdition”), and spy (“Skyfall”). Now, like James Gray and Steven Spielberg earlier this year with “Armageddon Time” and “The Fabelmans” respectively, Mendes gets to tackle something personal. He does not get into autobiography territory like Gray and Spielberg, but it is his own personal ode to the importance of movie theaters, “Empire of Light”. There are great ideas for “Empire” that is very much accused of being all over the place, but for an ode to how movie theaters can cure one another, it does somewhat succeed.
Hilary Small (played by Oscar-winner Olivia Colman) employs as a concession worker at a British movie theater called the Empire Theater. She is the oldest employee at the movie theater in a very young demographic of people working there. There is when the romantic story kicks in when the Empire theater manager Donald Ellis (played by Oscar-winner Colin Firth) introduces a new employee named Stephen (played by newcomer Micheal Ward). After giving Stephen a tour of the Empire Theater, Hilary starts to get interested in Stephen as time goes on and she gains interest in hanging out with him, developing a romantic chemistry.
Meanwhile, there comes a conflict where Stephen notices that Hilary is acting weird. That is because Hilary is prescribed lithium. To add onto this, Hilary is lonely and middle-aged, and she is tired and unsatisfied with what life has to offer.
As I can tell from typing the plot of this movie, the film does leap through many different ideas. It wants to tackle behavior issues, the atmosphere of the movie theater, be a romantic story, and even tackle contemporary racism at one point. This is Sam Mendes’ second time writing a movie after “1917” and it shows that he needs to hire a writer next time he directs a movie. “American Beauty” and “Jarhead” worked because he hired an actual great screenwriter for those movies. Yes. The screenplay is by far the weakest aspect of “Empire of Light”.
That problem pertains in the third act where I wished it delved into more of Hilary’s behavior developments rather than heavily focusing on her romance with Stephen.
With Olivia Colman’s Hilary Small, it can be a hit or miss. Sam Mendes puts the most awareness to Hilary more than any other character in this movie. You can tell that she really cares about the movie theater experience, and I felt sympathy for her improving to be a better and lighthearted person. There are times where her performance can come off bizarre when she acts up with her behaviors. The ending scene involving her and the movie “Being There” is incredibly heartwarming and is honestly one of the very best scenes of the year. I sometimes underestimate Olivia Colman as an actress. With her fierce facial expressions and body language, I think she is one of the most committed actresses working today.
The supporting cast is also quite good with Colin Firth, Toby Jones, and Micheal Ward, who the latter is quite charming and down-to-earth as Stephen, a person who is always on Hilary’s support. I thought the chemistry between Stephen and Hilary was quite intimate throughout.
Not to lie that I also loved the accurate movie theater atmosphere of the film given my love of movie theaters. There are the teenagers who look very bored doing their job. There is that typical patron who is not allowed to bring food to the theater. There is the immaculate big screen experience wonderfully shot by Roger Deakins.
“Empire of Light” has fantastic intentions to be one of Sam Mendes’ best movies, but the script unfortunately ends up being a huge and confusing mess. With the bittersweet conclusion however, it does make it an okay product.
Grade: 6/10
