Empire of Light Review

Empire of Lights is Sam Mendes' new passion project that follows a romantic encounter between Olivia Coleman’s Hilary and Michael Wards Stephen in the beautiful setting of an Empire Cinema.

A story that can lack a bit of substance at times but one that I enjoyed to see anyways. Because of the nature of the story, the love of romance added with the love of cinema captured by cinematographer Roger Deakins can swirl you into that world Sam Mendes clearly feels passionate for.

This movie tries to portray the racial divide that was around during that time with skinheads but there is an absence of grittiness to those scenes, maybe because the cinematography looks so clean but the sense of harshness that it needs is not there and so it doesn’t stay with you long enough for you to feel the fear that it’s trying to portray.

But the highlight is the performances by Olivia Coleman and Michael Ward and their connection on screen. You believe and route for their relationship and friendship.

Overall, Empire of Lights is a movie that does shortfall with the impact it wanted to achieve but I did enjoy the acting and at times you are sucked in by the romance. Empire of Lights gets a 7.1 out of 10.