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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Movie review: 'Empire of Light' celebrates cinema, lacks focus

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28 (UPI) — Empire of Light, in theaters Friday, can be a wonderfully nostalgic look at what movie theaters were like in the ’80s. Its portrait of British society in that era is a little more problematic, but the cinema period piece is sound.

Hilary (Olivia Colman) works at the Empire theater in 1980 coastal England. She trains Stephen (Michael Ward) and they develop a romance.

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Anyone who’s ever worked at a movie theater should relate to the ushers sharing stories about things they’ve found in the aisles. Anyone who hasn’t should also see, hopefully, what makes working in a movie theater in any capacity create such a unique bond.

Hilary has stories of “sleepers” trying to stay the night after the last show. The whole process of opening the concession stand, pulling candy from the front, carrying the film canisters up to the projection booth and more illustrate how this art form served the masses for a whole century before digital changed everything.

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Hilary doesn’t actually watch the movies because she’s too busy serving customers. That is a relevant, if extreme, point, too.

On a shift, there is absolutely too much to do with a steady stream of customers, but the biggest perk of the job is seeing the movies on your days off.

Even the mundane procedure of preventing customers from bringing outside food into the theater is dramatic. That rule may frustrate customers, but it is an argument ticket takers always have to have and it can escalate.

This, however, is also where Empire of Light falters. The customer who wants to bring in fish and chips (a messy item for sure) resents being prohibited to do that by a Black man more than he resents wasting his chips.

Writer-director Sam Mendes makes the privileged Hollywood mistake of depicting racism through the eyes of a middle-aged White woman. Hilary only learns about racism because she witnesses racists harass Stephen on the street, and must step in with the fish and chips customer.

This may be how a lot of sheltered White people in the United Kingdom or United States ever learned about issues that only people of color experienced firsthand. However, in 2022, it is no longer acceptable to make Stephen’s story an appendage to Hilary’s.

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Stephen should be the main character in the story of a Black man reconciling his love of cinema with the racist culture of 1980s England. The White people who learn about racism for the first time in their sheltered lives should be the supporting characters.

The movie is supposed to illustrate how out of her depth Hilary is when she attempts to speak out on Stephen’s behalf. But, it still is doing that by relegating Stephen to a supporting role.

Hilary is also taking lithium to treat her schizophrenia. Empire of Light doesn’t serve her mental health story particularly well, either, as her episode seems like an afterthought to all the social upheaval she witnesses.

Empire of Light struggles to connect stories of racism, mental health and romantic drama. Real life is messy, too, but a movie needs more focus.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001 and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012. Read more of his work in Entertainment.

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