Hilary (Olivia Colman), troubled by an unnamed medical condition and a poor relationship with the pills she’s supposed to take for it, works for the cinema’s owner, the pompous Mr Ellis (Colin Firth), who takes sexual advantage of Hilary’s kind nature and her vulnerability. In charge of front-of-house, Hilary supervises the ticket sellers and sweeps the cinema but, rather puzzlingly, never watches the films lovingly carried in from the delivery van by projectionist Norman (Toby Jones). Nine To Five has screened recently, Stir Crazy is on now, Being There and Chariots of Fire are coming soon, but Hilary seems oblivious to them all. She’s numb, even in her ballroom dancing classes.
While bonding over an injured pigeon roosting in the abandoned upper floor of the cinema, Hilary’s numbness dissipates as she opens herself to a relationship with young staff member, Stephen (Micheal Ward), whose family came from Trinidad in the 1960s. He’s grown up with a hardworking single mother, living with her in tenement housing. Racial intolerance has been a feature of his life. Hilary’s soft heart goes out to him.
Increasingly close to Stephen, Hilary remains remote with regard to everything else. Sam Mendes subtly, perhaps too subtly, makes a tenuous contrast between Hilary and Peter Sellers’ character Chauncey Gardner in Being There, a perpetually disconnected illiterate man who “likes to watch”. Society glorifies him, while he remains flat and dull throughout. Hilary, on the other hand, starts out disengaged, but partly through her love of poetry, she develops, gradually waking herself up emotionally. It’s a terrific moment when she asks Norman to show her a movie.
What sets the film apart is the characters’ love of movies. All except Hilary have it from the start, and even she gets it eventually. Movies light up lives, the film shows us, without actually showing us more than a few quick clips. Clever, that. In Norman’s private domain, his projection box, Sam Mendes and production designer Mark Tildesley have captured an exquisite world consisting of massive projectors, canisters containing reels of film, posters of classic movies, with beautifully filmed, exquisitely lit peephole views of the cinema. Roger Deakins’ cinematography is wonderful.
A small-scale, ultimately positive film, very English, about the importance of never giving up.
The first person to bring an image or hard copy of this review to Starlight Cinema Taupō qualifies for a free ticket to Empire of Light.
Highly recommended.
Movies are rated: Avoid, Recommended, Highly recommended and Must see.
