Empire of Light

[VoR]

Speaking of Oscar bait, although I suspect this will end up as one of the season's also-rans, unless the Academy REALLY loves Olivia Colman.



What a strange misfire this was. For the first forty minutes it was ambling along as a mildly diverting little character study of Colman playing another of those prickly loners she does so well, then the film decided it was actually a very earnest movie about racism, but also mental illness, but also a big metaphor for the healing power of cinema? It was all a bit on the nose, and tried to pack in way, way too much, none of which it handled particularly well.

Olivia Colman was reliably good, save for a couple of rather embarrassing scenes where the dialogue just left her completely adrift. I certainly wouldn't nominate her (or anyone) for it though.

 

[Phoenix]

I couldn’t be arsed with this tbh

 

[Ellie]

I actually really liked it. It could have been better and there was no real reason to make the relationship sexual. I agree that it tried to throw too many themes in and it certainly would have worked better if they were just good companions. Still, the performances were brilliant and I liked that they got the period setting so very right.

 

[Rowan Tree 🌳]

I thought it was a little confused but beautifully acted and shot.

 

[Christian]

I'll see it for Roger Deakins' cinematography.

 

[Finn]

THIS WAS FUCKING DREADFUL

But it looked good, I liked the idea of it, and Ward and Colman were very watchable, so it can still have a four despite every single thing about the screenplay being ham-fisted, on-the-nose TAT.

Mad to think the same man wrote American Beauty et al. The race stuff in particular felt like an Old White Guy's Guide To Racism (But He Only Spent Ten Minutes Googling It Himself). Get in the bin.