Review of Empire of Light (2022) by Bertobellamy — 27 Apr 2023
This is solely on Sam Mendes. Neither Roger Deakin's majestic photography nor Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' music can't pump blood into this cold story about human connection. Come on, not even Olivia Colman´s fine performance could.
So when three almost legendary artists can´t save your movie, there's got to be something wrong with it at its core. Mendes doesn't even know what he wants to talk about: is it racism? Mental health? The power of cinema? Three movies with this look and feel centered on each subject would have been more interesting, but somehow Mendes thought he could pull it off.
The conclusion of each subplot is as basic as it can be: racism is wrong; mental should concern us; movies are cool. Hell, even 'Babylon' is more focused than this. Somebody close to Mendes should have told him how bad his screenplay was; that would have been the best support ever.
Everything in 'Empire of Light' feels wasted; maybe a film based on Toby Jones' projectionist character could have been more engaging.
This review of Empire of Light (2022) was written by Bertobellamy on 27 Apr 2023.
Empire of Light has generally received positive reviews.
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