Rent Empire of Light (2022)

A noble film but sadly tries to cram too much into its story line, despite the efforts of the cast - Empire of Light review by TB

In my mind, in many ways Sam Mendes can do almost no wrong. After giving us American Beauty, Road to Perdition & Skyfall alongside his other works, the man has a free pass for life. But his background was started in theatre & for his first screenplay (written entirely by himself,) those themes of the stage/plays are clearly defined parameters running through it. You could quite easily imagine this as a play, with its relatively few locations & extremely intimate feel. However, despite all the big ideas & noble intentions, sadly this film misses as much as it hits for me.

Hilary is deputy manager at the Empire Cinema, a quaint movie theatre in a seaside town. She is a loyal staff member, but also clearly has difficulty associating with others/being in a crowd. It is slowly revealed that Hilary has complex mental health problems & was hospitalised the previous year. Her vulnerabilities are exploited by the cinema boss Donald, who coerces & forces her into sexual situations. She is bereft & spends vast amounts of time on her own. Then a new staff member, Stephen, a young & enthusiastic black man, starts working at the cinema & a close bond develops between them. However, there is also the rising threat of racism/The National Front as well as the instability of Hilary's mental health.

I have to say clearly & unambiguously that I absolutely give this film huge respect for trying to paint a broad canvas with many different issues which are put front & center of the narrative. But, despite that respect, I also must be honest & say that the fact that so many different issues & difficulties are put into the script is the film's fundamental problem. In a strange way, I found myself thinking a lot of Brassed Off, a film which similarly tried to squash in too many things & got a bit lost, although that film is far superior to this one.

As the film starts, it very beautifully builds on the difficulties experienced by Hilary & really gives a strong & uncomfortable look at the exploitation she is victim to. In particular, the multiple scenes of Donald demanding that she sexually satisfy him are absolutely repellent & rightfully so. But then when the added theme of the race riots & the growing issue of racism rearing it's disgusting head are also injected into the narrative, the film for me just didn't work.

And what compounded this all was the tone of the film: it was perfectly happy to potter along as a gentle & almost twee drama, which would then be interspersed with a shocking interlude, before going back to that almost-syrupy tone, which just didn't work. So in one scene, we witness a horrific act of brutal racist violence, then in the next, two characters sitting on the steps in the sunshine with one character saying how sad he was that he had walked out on his family for an unexplained reason. And those feelings he had were something which seemed to only moderately bother him.

However, intermixed with this there are some wonderful elements. Roger Deakins, returning as DP, has shot another staggeringly beautiful film. The actors, particularly Colman & Ward, have great chemistry together. And the soundtrack is also great. But overall for me, this film sadly tries to do too many things & ends up not successfully achieving any of the no doubt noble heights it has set itself.

Proof Positive that a Great Cast Does Not Necessarily a Good Movie Make. Badly-written preachy stuff - Empire of Light review by PV

I rarely turn of a film before it has come to the end. However, I know by plot point 1, usually minute 24 these days, what is coming so turned this off and ejected the DVD at the 30 minute mark. i read the summary of the story online and am glad I stopped watching.

It is all so glib, preachy, obvious - and the use of the word EMPIRE which is meant to make us think of the British Empire (DO YOU SEE? YES?) is eye-rollingly bad.

I suppose one know what to expect from the poster BUT this sort of mixed race relationship stuff is everywhere now, it is NOT radical as it was in 1970s or maybe 1980s. Show me a new TV drama or movie that is NOT populated by many black actors.

So it is all quaintly old-fashioned but not in a good way, I remember 1980/81 and the music and how people spoke, and firstly there were not many black people in such coastal towns and there were DEFINITELY no black people who spoke with modern London accents, socalled MLE - multicultural London English. Most viewers might not care about such accuracy, but I do. And NO-ONE said Happy NEW year then either, the American emphasis on NEW. We Brits would say Happy New YEAR, stress on YEAR. I still do. I refuse to copy Americanese from movies.

It is so clunky, preachy, obvious - and after 30 minutes I KNEW where this was heading with the predictable plot about racism, and controversy with mixed race relationships - I see form the story summary on Wiki that I am right.

Hints in the lithium mention of a coming mental breakdown - saw that coming by the 30 minute mark. There are some great films which deal with mental illness of all kinds. This is not one. This is not one which deals with issues of racism well either, It is boringly obvious and a new cliche - though funded by Disney who is woker than woke, so...

The cats is superb with the wonderful Colin Firth phoning it in (he should have said NO), the ubiquitous character act sympathetic face Toby Jones, and the deeply annoying Olivia Coleman who I have never liked (except in the brilliant TV mockumentary TWENTY-TWELVE which is way superior to WIA).

Just think how great the superb AMERICAN BEAUTY was with the brilliant Kevin Spacey, and see how far Sam Mendes has fallen with this preachy nonsense dross. His 1917 was passable and clever-clever, but this is like some mediocre TV drama or a 4th rate Eastenders script. It is all SO badly written, with on the nose everything and cliches galore including the news ones (must have a main female character who gets empowered; must have characters of colour and ISHOOOS like racism, yet again). I was here in 1980/81 and the streets were NOT crawling with skinhead marches at all. They DO get the music accurate at least, with two-tone which was big then and the New Romantic tracks of the day.

1 star. AVOID.

Olivia the great - Empire of Light review by cr

I see that this film got some mixed reviews but i enjoyed it.

Some say that it raised many issues without dealing with them such as mental health, racism, thatchers britain etc.

Its right its a little unfocused (narf!) but it handles the mental health issues really well and olivia is brilliant.

It also makes the point about the wonderful cinema buildings left to decline. This film is set in the 80's. I saw raiders of the lost ark in my home town cinema in 1981 and that cinema has been derelict since the mid 80's. Such a shame.

Moving and recomended.

Lovely film - Empire of Light review by JR

I really loved this film. Bit sad, gentle, mournful, but I like that. Olivia Colman was good. People seem too fast to nit pick and find fault with films,. but all I can say personally is, I liked it and would recommend to anyone who likes the same things as me.