Empire of Light - soulful, stirring and altogether terrific
Over
the past few months, there has been a trend of acclaimed filmmakers making
films celebrating, well, film. Mostly, it has been about the director's
experience that led them to the film industry or the experience of working in
that industry. Sam Mendes instead chose to focus on the final stage of a film's
life cycle- the exhibition- hitting close to home by focusing on characters who
work in an independent cinema, just like this one.
"Empire of Light" starts out as a romantic drama
between the staff of the fictional Empire Cinema: Hillary (Olivia Colman) and
Stephen (Michael Ward). The narrative's focus is on their relationship with how
they attempt to support each other dealing with their issues. Hillary's issue
is that she has struggles with her mental health and uses that relationship
initially as a coping mechanism while Stephen is dealing with a Britain where
racism is very much on the rise due to the National Front. Furthermore, there's
also a #METOO element in the sleazy manager of the cinema Donald (Colin Firth).
But as I mentioned earlier all of these themes come together in the celebration
of cinemas- the relationship representing the shared community of the cinema
and the light (the film) giving an escape from the darkness of the world and
the mind as I paraphrase a line from the projectionist Norman (the ever-present
Toby Jones) who is Mendes's mouthpiece to instil a greater appreciation for
cinema in the audience. Therefore, even though Mendes (writing his own film for
a change) is juggling with five different main themes (not even counting the brief
reference to immigration or the motif of punk music) he is able to blend them
all together to create a nuanced and engaging plot.
There's a brilliant cast assembled here. There's Toby Jones who
gives gravitas in his monologue about film projection and Colin Firth who,
whilst maintaining his posh accent, plays a manipulative and unfaithful
character we are designed to dislike. Olivia Colman is extremely talented in
whatever she is in (just look at "Joyride") but is given a
challenging role both acting jovial and with insanity and she delivers on that.
Michael Ward is able to hold his own as the other lead in a much quieter but
nevertheless powerful performance substituting Colman's anger for bitterness.
Mendes hired only the best for his technical aspects. Roger
Deakins has done the cinematography and it's stunning. Just look at the teaser
trailer for proof of his striking colour grading and portraits of the
characters' emotions. Trent Reznor's and Atticus Ross's score excels at vividly
capturing the emotions of each scene it features in- anger, romance, optimism,
etc.
Overall, this is a soulful, stirring and altogether terrific
film.
