Empire of Light Review

Empire of Light is a romantic drama and a smaller-scale film by Sam Mendes.

Hilary Small (Olivia Colman) is the duty manager at the Empire Cinema in Margate. She lives a lonely life, takes pills to manage her mental health, and is having an affair with her boss, Donald Ellis (Colin Firth). A ray of light comes into her life when the cinema hires a new employee, Stephen (Michael Ward) and she becomes infatuated with the young man.

In the 2010s Mendes made two Bond films and 1917. All three were big, elaborate blockbusters. Empire of Light allowed him to make a more personal and character-driven film. Empire of Light felt like a film made by a first-time filmmaker since it was a romantic drama about a young man and middle-aged woman and had themes of mental health and racial discrimination. Mendes being a more famous filmmaker was able to bring in his A-list talent in front and behind the camera.

Empire of Light was a great looking, brilliantly acted which was to be expected considering the people involved. Olivia Colman has proven herself to be one of the best actors working. She has won an Academy Award for The Favourite and has been nominated twice more. Colman gave another excellent performance as a damaged woman. Hilary was shown to be kind and considerate to colleagues and patrons, but lonely. The first few minutes of the film showed how sad Hilary’s life was because she had Christmas dinner alone and her pills made her feel numb.

Colman showed Hilary’s range throughout the film. There was a listlessness to her before her passion becomes ignited when she meets Stephen. Yet Hilary’s mood swung after she went off her pills and there was a bitterness to her when her life started to crumble. Colman was fantastic when she unleashed all her anger and resentment when Stephen tried to help Hilary after her breakdown. A scene that showed Hilary’s fluctuating mood was when she went on a day trip to Hastings where Hilary and Stephen have fun on the beach, but she turned when Stephen commented on her sandcastle-making. The character path was well trodden in Empire of Light but Colman’s performance was so engaging.

Hilary and Stephen had a kinship. Stephen suffered from racism: he was verbally attacked by skinheads, and they called him racist names. He also experienced passive-aggressive behaviour from some people who didn’t like being told what to do by a young black man. Hilary told Stephen off when he made fun of one of the cinemagoers. She told him that it’s not nice when people were made fun of, even behind their backs. Hilary probably had the same experience when she suffered from her first mental breakdown.

Colman and Ward had great chemistry together, but it was not perfect. They were let down by directing and writing at some points. This was most evident during the early stage of their courtship when they went into the abandoned top floor of the cinema. It was overly romanticised and twee, especially when Stephen helped a pigeon with a broken wing. This sentiment extended to Toby Jones’ character and the talk of the power of cinema. It was a little overbearing. To be fair to the film the cinema in Margate was a beautiful, old-fashioned cinema and it looked like a great venue to watch a film.

Empire of Light sentimentality was toned down after Hilary and Stephen were together. Hilary’s issues became more obvious and had overly silly bits like pigeon healing. But the film still did suffer from an overly predictable story and plot points.

Empire of Light was a film worth watching for the performance, especially Colman’s. The actors were able to keep a level of interest even when the film gets too sappy and predictable.