An accomplished director like Sam Mendes should have known better than to commit the script for Empire of Light to film. Of course, he has no one to blame but himself for this disappointing effort, as he also wrote the screenplay – apparently while wearing rose-colored glasses. All directors have bad days, but Empire of Light baffles me – so much so that I can’t help but wonder why no one along the way to greenlighting it paused for a moment to ask, “Are we sure about this?”
On paper, Empire of Light checks a lot of boxes for me. Its early-1980s English setting is ripe with opportunities to catch my eye – something the trailer backs up with brief but powerful glimpses of era-appropriate British subcultures like rude boys, punks, and skinheads. Add to that a cast of luminary British actors like Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, and Toby Jones to help us navigate these historically tumultuous times, and anything less than expertly crafted drama accented by powerhouse performances becomes completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, the only part we get is the unacceptable one.
Colman plays Hillary, a manager at a beautifully preserved and historic movie theater in the seaside city of Margate, England. A stickler for rules and routine, Hillary is somewhat off-put by the arrival of a much younger employee named Stephen (Micheal Ward), but quickly softens to his polite charm and sincerity. As their relationship quickly grows from one of kinship to one of romance, Hillary begins to show signs of instability, and so does the story.
By this point in the film, there have already been a number of forgivable pacing issues and off-putting plot elements, but those aren’t what make Empire of Light so difficult to engage with. Early on, Mendes hints at a number of thematic avenues his film might follow, all of which are perfectly fine and potentially quite interesting. But, instead of choosing a single path forward and seeing it to a coherent conclusion, Mendes inexplicably opts to follow every single path he’s laid out. In short, he’s made it impossible to care about anything that happens because there are too many things happening simultaneously. While we’re stuck in the mud on one issue, we’re hitting a brick wall with another. It’s exhausting.
Congruently, had Mendes chosen a lane, Empire of Light would likely have been something quite special. Each of the themes he presents is more than worthy of exploration, and with the cast he’s put together, along with the many story options he’s clearly created for himself, we should be looking at a bona fide award winner, not the dud we’re given.
As is, however, I’m not sure if Empire of Light is supposed to be a comment on May-December romances, mental health issues, misogyny in the workplace, the bygone days of grand cinema houses, the healing power of friendship, the importance of education, or British racism in the ‘80s and the racially charged riots that happened as a result. By giving each of these themes equal footing, Mendes has created a jarring tangle of tones and ideas that can’t possibly be sorted out in any meaningful way. As a result, nothing of substance is resolved, character growth is minimal, and the entire story dissipates into nothingness.
Plus, for a movie that makes such deliberate references to Two-Tone Ska, I would have expected to hear a lot more songs from that era. Another disappointment.
James is a writer, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.