There’s a line in the film Empire of Light that talks about how shooting films on film cameras work. That a movie, made in this older format, is basically 24 still shots in a frame, and in between each frame is a dark gap, a “darkness” as the character Norman (played by Toby Jones) calls it. He says, “there’s a little flaw in our optic nerve so if I run the film at 24 frames per second you don’t see the darkness… viewing static images in succession creates an illusion of motion, an illusion of life…” This line encapsulates exactly the entirety of this whole movie’s atmosphere and structure.

It’s an illusion, really. The whole movie is just snapshots of these characters’ lives through a particular moment in time and while it never really gets deep down and dirty in the particulars, it merely leaves us with impressions of their troubles and life challenges. What we are left with is the illusion of motion and of life.

Director Sam Mendes takes the magnificently versatile and dynamic Olivia Colman and a very charming and impressive Michael Ward into a narrative set in a cinema in 1981 Margate, England. Colman plays Hillary, the duty manager of the Empire cinema, who is suffering from mental health issues and Ward plays Stephen, a young man who can’t get into college and must battle racism every day in a Margaret Thatcher-era Britain. The two find themselves at a particularly unstable time in both of their lives and keep each other from going under. Their love story is just one of many little themes that play out in ‘Empire of Light’ that gives the story something to move it forward but it’s not really the whole gist of it.

Because the movie is also about mental health and the way Hillary seems to lack any real support from the government but it’s also about the racism that Stephen experiences on a daily basis during this time. The film is also a love story to movies and the glory of watching in the cinema and it’s about the changing landscape of society as the world moves forward. It’s not just a love story but a lot of little things that don’t really amount to any sort of bigger meaning except that life is really just a mix and match of different little challenges that we face. It’s never as clear-cut and precise as a movie, which is why we love the medium so much. Movies make sense out of the randomness of life and, interestingly enough, ‘Empire of Light’ prefers to remain distant and cold from all the things that would have made the story the stuff of cinema.

While Colman and Ward deliver strong performances, the movie is also amplified by Director of Photography Roger Deakin’s masterful use of light and composition. The way each moment is punctuated by a change in the lighting, whether the day shifts into dusk, or when lighting fixtures are switched on and create a radiance that fills up the screen, it’s a showcase of the genius of Deakins and is reason to watch the film.

Also doing a lot of heavy lifting is the tender musical score of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. While Colman and Ward are bringing life to the scenes and Deakins frames it beautifully as an image, Reznor and Ross allow the scenes to breathe. The melodies they build upon each scene just highlight the humanity in these moments. 

What Sam Mendes puts together may not be enjoyable to most. In fact, a lot of critics have remarked on the lack of narrative depth to the piece by failing to really go deep into his character’s inner worlds and struggles. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the distance that he takes and how less like a movie it is and more like viewing someone from outside their realm of experience. Instead, the movies in ‘Empire of Light’ will have that sort of effect on people (and even the characters of the film) but the movie itself will be the opposite of it. It’s an illusion and I appreciate the poetry of that.

My Rating:

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Empire of Light is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.