Empire of Light (2022) Review

Set in the early 1980s, in a coastal town and how the people who work in a cinema deal with the difficulty of the times, touching on racism, mental health and relationships.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Empire of Light is all based around the cinema of the Empire which is on the coast (like literately a cinema right on the beach, which is my dream in all honesty). Giving a glimpse into the very different lives of the people who work their, we mainly follow Hilary who is a Duty Manager at the cinema and we get little pieces of information that she had not been well the previous year. We see her attend meetings with a doctor and taking medication, although we also see her stop taking the medication and then lying to the doctor which would have extreme and difficult consequences.

When a young man named Stephen began working at the cinema, collecting tickets they would form a very unlikely bond/relationship that would show that age and race really do not matter when you form that special connection. He has a very difficult time being a black man during a time of unrest and horrendous behaviour in England. This does make for some very difficult to watch scenes and moments.

Neil and Norman have worked in the cinema for a long time with Hilary and the compassion they show towards her is rather nice in all honesty, as they don’t fully know how they can help but are constantly looking out for her. As her story develops and we truly see her struggling with her mental health, a sexual relationship with the cinema manager Donald Ellis makes you feel uncomfortable especially with some later revelations and quite frankly he should have been pushed for. It managed to demonstrate that you sometimes will never actually know how lonely someone you work with is, you turn up and spend the majority of the hours in your day with them and could be fully oblivious to what they go home to or maybe what they don’t have at all. This really does spark many different things to think about when you are watching the film.

I fully admit that this film went in many different directions to what I thought it was going to be about, I seriously thought it was going to be more of a love in to the cinema and films. Which in some moments it was, but that wasn’t the full driving force of the film. I did love the scenes seeing the film being played to the screen and how much it has changed since the switch the digital. Shown as a full art form of being able to allow people to watch the films.

Did the relationship between Hilary and Stephen really have to be sexual though? I’ve thought about this a lot since leaving the cinema and I feel as though it didn’t actually have to go that far and a friendship could have worked just as well. Not sure if that is just me though or if others felt this way as well?

The performances were all fantastic though and it really was incredible to see Olivia Colman taking on the very tricky role of Hilary, showing what a full mental breakdown can look like. It was haunting at times and you couldn’t help but not only feel sorry for her, but also scared for her and a little bit scared of her. Micheal Ward is a true star in the making and each time you see him on screen you cannot help but love him even more. The supporting cast of Toby Jones, Hannah Onslow and Tom Brooke really balanced everything out well. I don’t think I was fully prepared for Colin Firth to be such a sleazy character and I have to admit that shook me to the core!

The final scene was quite poignant and there’s something truly magical about watching a film at the cinema with the character in the film sat in a cinema watching a film.