Sam Mendes’ tribute to the magic of the cinema would not be complete without the lights going down just as someone walks into the row in front of you in the cinema, carrying their foldable scooter blocking your view of the opening studio logos for a brief moment. Ah, the cinema!
Hot off the heels of his Oscar-winning hit 1917, director Sam Mendes is back with his most personal film to date.
Empire of Light is set in an English coastal town in the 1980s and is a drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times. But, it never really manages to find that human connection with any of its characters.
Despite having a stellar cast including national treasure Olivia Colman, Michael Ward, and Colin Firth, Empire of Light struggles to conjure up any emotions within you. The film attempts to tackle too many issues at once, with everything from mental health, racism, to the state of cinema today. In doing this, crucially, nothing feels natural.
As a result of such an unfocussed narrative, every attempt at any semblance of meaning or emotion just feels forced. There are hints at starting to cut through to something moving or poignant at times, for instance when Toby Jones’ projectionist talks about “that little beam of light, it’s the escape.” In that moment you really feel his love for the cinema, you momentarily see what the film is trying to get out. But, most of the time, these brief glimpses never turn into anything more than hints at emotional connection; the moments are too brief.
To top it all off, for most of the film’s runtime, Empire of Light is pretty boring. For most of the first act, the film spends all its time following the monotonous tasks of the employees of the Empire cinema, making it quite plain and dull to sit through. By the end, there isn’t much more excitement either. Any film that ends with a poem from your GCSE English literature anthology is just asking to be docked another star at this point really.
Whilst Empire of Light has good performances from its cast and looks lovely thanks to the cinematography of Roger Deakins, Mendes’ latest film is pretty boring for the most part and certainly not worthy of being its own empire worth of light.
Empire of Light releases in UK cinemas on 9th January 2023.