Mark Kermode reviews Empire of Light - Kermode and Mayo's Take

#MarkKermode #SimonMayo #FilmReviews

A drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s.

[taintedlove]

The cinematography, the lighting, the score and of course the acting. I loved this movie!!! Stellar cast, Olivia Coleman at her finest.

[lucasbowers]

The feeling of it being multiple movies, to me, is representative of how we live our lives. We’re constantly resetting, starting again, trying one more time to fix the things we feel we can’t. That’s why the last lines are from that Larkin Poem “Afresh, Afresh, Afresh”. I loved it

[orbitaaltube]

I found this film to be one of the most interesting films I have watched in years. The art deco setting and all the liminal spaces really struck a chord. I got so much meaning from this film, the older screens that have gone out of use and into disrepair, which are a metaphor for herself. Overcoming the barrier of age and race through love. The absolute torment of mental health and trying to help someone overcome it (the pigeon)- the need to let it run its course to a certain extent and let things heal. How the cinema itself had employees from all walks of life. I loved the intertwining of all the stories within the film. I would personally give it 5 stars.

[kiwiopklompen]

Such a relevant film. I loved everything about it. It gripped me heart and soul, and i honestly wept at the ending.

[josephboulter]

As a former projectionist, I must admit to enjoying this film too much. Yes it can be a little convoluted, but during the pandemic I truly missed my old job. It was often a community of oddballs working in a slightly rundown old cinema just like this one. This film played on my nostalgia for the past, and the connection with fellow staff and customers that we all missed during lockdown. Watching Toby Jones character go through the motions of making up a print, reel changes bought tears to my eyes. The acting was superb from the whole cast, it maybe tried to juggle too many story arc's at the same time but its positives out way the negatives. I think Kermode and Mayo got this review right on the money!

[katherinebeattie]

I loved this film. I was fascinated by the corners of humanity it showed light on. A corner of the world, a moment in time and how our lives are 'in the light' to each of us. I felt all Mendes themes did work together to show a time, and the humans who lived in it.

[potterpotty]

i completely agree with Mark, fabulously acted, fabulously shot, fabulously directed, just didn't quite know what he was trying to say storywise. definitley too many threads being pulled at once.
but worth a watch.

[sophocles]

Had such a lovely feel - thoroughly enjoyable

[grahamstevens]

Just seen this and really enjoyed it. Found it compelling with some great camera work. Olivia is fantastic. Great to have Margate on the movie map as well.

[ollytopley]

This is a beautiful film. Yes there is a lot going but that's one of things that's so great about it. It looks fantastic, acting amazing, character s deeply interesting, touches a range of subject matter.... You come out "touched" by it. Great film.

[ΔέσποιναΡάπτη-κδ]

The English version of ''Cinema o Paradisos''... Deeply anti-racist, anti-sexist, deeply human, nostalgic of a retro aesthetic and above all of a harbinger of the densest darkness that post-Reagan and Thatcher neoliberalism has imposed on the West...

[easytoassemble]

Although the film wavers between the melancholy poetry of life (which Mendes does well at), and the slightly over-sentimental, it has a good heart overall. I was particularly struck by Coleman's performance. Since she's almost typecast now as "smiley character with an undertone of passive-agressive annoyance", it's easy to forget she can use that to very subtle, nuanced, and devastating effect. I felt the portrayal of loneliness and mental health (and the intersection of both) was excellent; very sympathetic and well drawn in this film. The "magic of cinema" thing sometimes felt like a TCM advert, but overall, it also felt like it was coming from a sincere place, and helped add that sense of poetry that Mendes does so well..

I might disagree slightly with Kermode's take that it was multiple films in one, as I think Mendes was going for a "tapestry of life" effect. Though, I'd agree, that's difficult to jam all that into a 2 hr running time. A 3hr film (or even a series) might have done that better justice.

Totally agree. It looks amazing, the soundtrack is great, production design is fabulous, casting is excellent... but what is it about? A lot of relevant issues, yes, but scattered all over the place. It could have been so much more with so much less.

[onefromthemodem]

For me it's one of the finest films of the last twenty years, the accuracy of both the characterisation and performance of the central character and the portrayal of love, abuse, fear, shame and mental illness is incredibly effective. The tale is told with such tenderness offering moments of levity at the darkest moments but, unlike what others have said I feel it never becomes mawkish - indeed one moment uses the faint strains of Vangelis to rightly redefine a scene of humiliation as one of heroism (the score, and particularly the diegetic sound is superb). The sense of place, and allegory, with the cinema and the top floors in particular is a masterstroke, as is the way love, friendship and loss is affectionately portrayed. I'm not a Mendes fan but as I imagine him reaching for Badlands (1973) to find a sense of America for American Beauty (1999) I feel he found his Casablanca (1942) here, the same sense of love caught in a greater struggle, of past and future marking the now.

[iainwatts]

I work in mental health, I loved this film

[spenny]

A handful of my favourite British actors in one perfectly casted written by a man who is incapable of making a dead movie. #kudos

[lizannewhitlow]

Mein Gott. I just finished this film. The soft piano music alone knocked me over. It is so much more than a film. It is extraordinary.

[andrewreeveart]

I loved Empire of Light so much....the cinematography is so incredibly beautiful, the theme, the story....I loved it I loved it I loved it...mental health is something I have a...sometimes fun sometimes horrible experience with which is probably why I loved this. Like Flowers by Will Sharpe. Gorgeous, funny, heart-wrenching, funny. And the relationship between Hilary and Stephen...from Hilary's perspective I totally get it (familiar), and from Stephen's...to me it feels like relationships I've had, and totally messed-up, whereby the person is attracted by, for example, the Full of Life Zing Pow persona which, as I know, dissipates at some point and is perhaps confusing and difficult for the person outside my/Hilary's bubble. I watched Roger Deakins youtube videos about lighting before I watched Empire, which just added to me blubbing my way through this beautiful movie.

[DaveyNaples]

I just watched empire of light and looked up this review to see what the guys thought of it. I have to say, i disagree with saying its multiple films, I think it's more reflective of life. I think it would have been a romanticism to show England in the 80s without showing the racism and showing how people live with mental illness is also part of real life. As for the central relationship, it started off seeming a little bit unconvincing to me but by the end I really believed in it. Overall I have to say I really really enjoyed this film, probably for all the reasons that Mark had a problem with it - also, as everyone else has said, it looks beautiful

[roypearson]

I loved the film, but I completely agree with this review.