David Farnor | On 08, Apr 2023

Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Olivia Colman, Michael Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones
Certificate: 15

It’s hard to believe that Sam Mendes hasn’t written a solo screenplay before. It’s perhaps even harder to believe that his first is so underwhelming. Empire of Light, which continues cinema’s long-standing genre of love letters to cinema, emerges as less of a moving tribute to the power of film than an overly saccharine muddle.

The film takes us back to 1980 when the Margate coast was home to the beautiful Empire Cinema. Managed by Donald Ellis (Colin Firth in disturbingly sleazy mode), it’s a successful enough picture house, but has seen better days, with a whole upper floor that’s been closed off due to disuse. When an offer to host the regional premiere of Chariots of Fire turns up, though, the staff at the cinema spy a chance to remind everyone of the magic of movies in the way that only cliched feel-good films can.

Leading the staff of the troubled Hilary (Olivia Colman), whose struggles with bipolar disorder has left her at the exploitative whims of Donald. Hope of a brighter future appears in the form of Stephen, a young Black man who takes a job as a teller in the foyer. They strike up a relationship, one that makes Hilary aware of the racial prejudice that Stephen has to face every day.

If this already sounds like a lot of plot strands to juggle, you’re not wrong, and Empire of Light’s biggest problem is that it wants to shine a spotlight on all of them. And so we jump back and forth between a fledgling romance, racist bullying, social commentary, workplace drama and underdog film industry cliches. And that’s after you get past a jarring scene in Colin Firth’s office in the opening five minutes.

All this might not be a problem if the script could find some way to give any cohesion or depth to its umpteen elements. As it is, it falls to the cast to bring some substance to the shallow sentiment. Olivia Colman is wonderfully heartfelt and vulnerable as Hilary but feels like she’s in a different film to Stephen, who’s played with charisma by the always-excellent Michael Ward. Even Toby Jones in the cheesy role of a hangdog projectionist can’t redeem a hackneyed monologue about the ability of cinema to transport us away from our lives for a fleeting moment. Roger Deakins’ stunning cinematography only emphasises the missed potential for Empire of Light to do just that – the result is less transcendent than disappointingly tedious. If cinema needs saving, this isn’t the film to do it.

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