Empire of Light (2022 | UK / USA | 119 minutes | Sam Mendes)
Planted firmly in the middle of Main Street, the Empire movie theater could be in any small town from North Britain to Southern California and it would look the same. Hilary (Olivia Coleman) is a White middle-aged woman that works day in and day out in the thankless job of movie theater manager. Taken advantage of by her boss and ignored by everyone else, she lives a life of simple solitude. In walks a young Black man looking for work, Stephen (Micheal Ward), and she’s drawn in immediately. What started as a simple friendship grew into something else that neither knew what to do with. When their lives are laid bare and both have to confront uncomfortable truths the other hides from the world, things go sideways and their grip on each other and their own understanding of the world they live in begin to slip.
With beautiful cinematography you can almost feel the sea mist hitting your face as Stephen and Hilary exchange difficult stories and concerned looks. The dialogue is spare, using pregnant pauses filled with cigarette smoke, the almost-constant grey of the ocean view, and long meaningful glances do a lot of the heavy lifting. The leads are stellar, the script is good and the locations are beautiful, but for some reason the overall film feels a little disjointed.
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to concentrate on Hilary’s story or Stephen’s, and there wasn’t a feeling of relief as they found understanding and solace in each other, because they never did. The resolution never came for either of them individually or together. A hard slice of real life I suppose? Having seen each other through their most turbulent times, as soon as the complications of one was revealed, the other seemed to pull back and hide rather than be drawn to support. An uncomfortable chance meeting on the street proved they had gone their separate ways despite still having a fondness for each other. While that wasn’t the end of them, it was snapshot that explains my discomfort and lack of excitement for the film as a whole.
As a film lover and critic, I almost feel sad that I can’t gush about Empire of Light with its heartfelt embrace of the classic movie-going experience. Coleman and Ward’s performances alone merit a viewing and the idea of watching a film about a big gorgeous cinema in its heyday on your tv at home seems almost sacrilege; so go out and see it. Get a nice meal, grab the hand of a friend or loved one, and chow down on some popcorn to a heartbreaking tribute to the turbulent 80’s and beautiful old theaters.
Empire of Light arrives in theaters on Friday December 9