‘Empire of Light’ Struggles to Find Its Message
Seen at the opening night of the St. Louis International Film Festival.
Empire of Light follows Hilary (Olivia Colman), the duty manager at a movie theater in 1980’s England. In the opening montage, we see her open the theater, making sure everything is in its right place and running smoothly. Her boss, Mr. Ellis, routinely takes advantage of her by eliciting sexual favors from her. We quickly surmise that Hilary lives her life for the happiness of others, neglecting her own wishes. Until she begins a relationship with the new ticket-taker, Stephen (Michael Ward).
I wanted so much to love this film and be moved by it. Olivia Colman is one of the best actors working today, and unsurprisingly, she gives a powerful performance here. Unfortunately, Empire of Light suffers from its scattered plot and inability to focus on any many ideas it attempts to take on. It wants to be a parable about the joys of cinema, a melodrama about mental illness, an admonition about the horrors of racism, and a grand romance, all at once. And it spends so much time trying to be all of these that it eventually feels empty by the end.
The relationship between Hilary and Stephen feels forced and awkward from the second it becomes romantic. The two would be much better off as friends. Michael Ward gives a grounded and emotional performance, despite the fact that Stephen gets shortchanged throughout the film and feels like a pawn in the game of teaching the white characters about racism. Writer/director, Sam Mendes, wants to give voice to the rampant racism of Thatcher-era Britain, but fails to engage seriously with his only Black character. Hilary is seen as the ignorant or uninformed white woman, who doesn’t see what’s going on, and if she does see, she looks the other way or pretends it’s something else. Stephen tells her to watch the news more and explains to her that what he is experiencing is racism, but by the end of the film it is not clear that Hilary has really learned much.
The storyline about Hilary’s mental illness succumbs to this issue as well. Mendes begins to say something about the shortcomings on mental health treatment — Hilary’s doctor dismisses her complaints about the medication she is on — but fails to follow through on making any statement about people living with mental illness. The film does not give Hilary the dignity required for a nuanced story about her illness.
Movies about movies are always a gamble because they run the risk of becoming an amalgam of cliches and cringe. However, I think Empire of Light is at its best when the projectionist, Norman (Toby Jones) is teaching Stephen about the inner workings of showing a film. There are a few bright spots throughout the film (I loved the references to poets like Tennyson and Philip Larkin), but overall Mendes’ script is too overstuffed and disorganized to really make an impact on the audience.
