Sam Mendes, the director of films like American Beauty and Skyfall, is not known as a screenwriter. In fact, he had not written a screenplay until 1917, his World War 1 epic, and even then he collaborated with Pippa Harris. At first, it may seem surprising that after decades of directing films, Empire of Light is Mendes’ first entirely original screenplay, one he wrote by himself. I say “at first” because, by watching the film, his shortcomings become abundantly clear. Slight and cloying, the latest Mendes film suffers from a thin central romance and strangely ineffective performances.
The title refers to The Empire, a cinema in a coastal English town where the film takes place. It is late in 1980, a period where The Blues Brothers is the hot ticket and a projectionist is still a noble vocation. Olivia Colman plays Hilary, a supervisor at the cinema, who believes that all her customers deserve dignity. Hilary is a deeply unhappy woman, on the mend after a stint in a mental institution, and who has a passionless affair with her married boss (Colin Firth). Right before Christmas, the Empire hires Stephen (Micheal Ward), a sensitive young man who loves two-tone ska and dreams of becoming an architect. He is charming and worldly in a way that only exists in the movies, catching Hilary’s eye, and the two begin a strange May-December relationship (the film barely acknowledges their age gap). Hilary’s illness gets in the way of romance, as it must, as does Stephen’s background: he is black, which forces him to contend with skinheads more often than we would like to admit.
The shortcomings in Empire of Light take a while to reveal themselves. Cinematographer Roger Deakins does great work, capturing light and darkness in ways that add an element of nostalgia to the story (an early scene with Stephen and Hilary watching fireworks is a highlight). The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, full of muted and pianos synths, is a good match for the material, even if they borrow liberally from their work on Nine Inch Nails’ 2020 ambient albums Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts.
The trouble is when Mendes introduces conflict to his characters. The central romance between Hilary and Stephen is implausible: the actors do not share chemistry, for one thing, and Mendes’ approach to building a rapport is full of strange flourishes like how the pair nurse a pigeon back to health. But what ultimately undermines their romance is the way Hilary is written; Empire of Light equates mental illness with being nasty and rude, leading to multiple scenes where Hilary lashes out at onlookers and friends who give her more patience than she deserves. Colman has become a reliable screen presence, capable of depicting troubled characters in films like The Favourite, but here, the screenplay does her zero favors. She portrays someone unrealistic and deeply unlikable to boot, which is another way of saying her mediocre performance is entirely Mendes’ fault.
In between the strain of Stephen’s saintlike patience and Hilary’s nasty outbursts, Mendes attempts to shoehorn political subtext and a familiar subplot about the magic of the movies. Hilary is apolitical, and stirred to action by bearing witness to skinheads harassing Stephen (he observes that the rise of Thatcher has brought additional harassment). There is no resolution or message to this detail, just a white-centric example of empathy, since Mendes has a noticeable lack of interest in how Stephen feels about what befalls him.
The story of the cinema itself, told through a projectionist played by Toby Jones, is the kind of self-celebration that has become quite popular among movies nowadays. It will not shock you to learn that Mendes recreates a shot from Cinema Paradiso, Belfast, and The Fabelmans: the image of someone looking at a movie screen with utter delight. You may furrow your brow when you learn what movie leads to such a reaction. The Hal Ashby satire Being There moves Hilary to tears, the final scene in particular where the Peter Sellers character literally walks on water. The scene is provocative and perplexing, not moving, which suggests that Mendes does not fully understand what films do to audiences. Come to think of it, that’s the problem with Empire of Light writ large.
Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
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