TIFF 2022: Empire of Light Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The Fabelmans isn’t the only director’s love letter to cinema. Movie theatres are formidable empires of light and Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light is an ode to those cinemas and the power of human connection and finding one’s own light but arguably gets too ambitious with its themes of racism and mental illness and gets lost along the way as it tries to tie it all together through the lens of a love story. Delivering on emotion and a sense of spectacle through its powerful score and beautiful cinematography and stellar performances by Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward, the film still does a great job at pulling in audiences in. Despite its overambitious and occasionally predictable script, Colman and Ward nevertheless carry it with their effortless chemistry as each brought the best out of the other over the course of the film in a compelling way and made it easy to connect to their characters on an emotional level.

Empire of Light, as mentioned, takes place at the Empire Cinema in a seaside town in early 1980s London and follows the family of employees who work there. The matriarch of that family was a woman named Hillary (Colman) for whom despite a complicated life behind the scenes, keeps the cinema together and running though it seemed to take a toll on her. However, things started to change when a new employee named Stephen (Ward) is hired. Putting him under his wing as he learns the ropes about how a cinema operates, the two form a close bond which eventually developed into something more. Stephen’s youthful perspective on life was perhaps what Hillary needed to come out of her shell and live. Unlike those his age, he was an old soul that made it easy for her to gravitate towards him. As fun as they may be to watch together, it came at a cost as their lives were not without their issues. Their relationship soon faced some adversity as the film went off track in a failed attempt to tie in some big themes into its main narrative and could never quite recover.

The best part of Empire of Light was its beautiful cinematography and terrific score which worked to set the tone nicely but what ultimately tied the film together, script notwithstanding, was the aforementioned stellar performances from Colman and Ward as Hillary and Stephen. Taking a different turn than what many are probably used to from her, Colman creates a vulnerable yet empathetic figure with an interesting arc. Ward thrives solely on charm and screen presence as he holds his own alongside Colman. The chemistry of Colman and Ward make it work in spite of its issues.

At the end of the day, Empire of Light delivers an escape that may not all work but is worth the watch for the spectacle alone.

still courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.