Empire of Light                  3 ½ stars

Empire of Light by director Sam Mendez (who is better known for 1917 and the James Bond films) is an old-fashioned romance movie about a love that is not meant to be. This movie is about a small group of people who work in a once grand movie theater on the southern coast of England in the early 1980’s. The theater still attracts customers, but it clearly has seen better days as parts of the building have fallen into decay and lack of use. There we meet one of the employees, Hilary (the award-winning Olivia Colman), a middle-aged woman who does some of the theater’s menial tasks and has some hints of mental issues. The other employees are considerably younger than Hilary, other than the projectionist, an interesting older man (played by Toby Jones). Hilary is in an abusive relationship with the manager, Mr. Ellis (a detestable Colin Firth) who routinely asks her for sessions of sex on demand. One day a new employee is hired there. He is Stephen (Michael Ward), a young black man in his early 20’s. Since this is the eighties and tolerance isn’t really a thing yet, the area is plagued with gangs of young skinheads who like to beat up on black men, so Stephen has plenty to deal with. It seems natural that he and Hilary would soon become better acquainted, but things can’t be maintained given these circumstances. Even so, seeing what Stephen is going through gives Hilary the courage to stand up to the abusive Ellis in dramatic fashion. The film moves rather slowly at times but gives us a deeper understanding of the characters in the story. It is quite a departure from Mendez’ more popular works. The movie was nominated for Best Cinematography in 2023, which is well deserved.