Empire of Light is a tale of an interracial romance between the older Hilary (Olivia Colman) and the college-aged Stephen (Micheal Ward). It is set in an oceanside English movie theater in the early 1980s. Eventually, Hilary’s paranoid schizophrenia and her forced hospitalization end their romance. Michael also faces racist customers, street harassment, and worries about what people would think if he and Hilary are seen together. And in the most striking moment of the movie, Stephen is attacked by racist rioters who invade the cinema. There is also a lot of talk about how great movies are.
The performances by Olivia Colman and Michell Ward are top-notch, I think they’ll both get Oscar nominations. But the film as a whole is trying to do too much and isn’t doing it all well. The romance works but then it adds the commentary on racism, and then on top of that the discussion of mental health. And throughout the movie a slight suggestion that maybe Hilary is being gaslighted by males who decided she was paranoid schizophrenic. It’s not clear if it’s trying to make some sort of point about how males in positions of power treat women’s mental health or not.
This is a movie you see for the acting.