Empire of Light is a 2022 British-American romantic drama film directed, written, and co-produced by Sam Mendes.

Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, the film is about the power of human connection during turbulent times.

It stars Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Monica Dolan, Tom Brooke, Tanya Moodie, Hannah Onslow, Crystal Clarke, Toby Jones and Colin Firth.

In 1980, Hilary Small works as a duty manager at the "Empire Cinema", Margate, on the north coast of the English county of Kent.

Hilary struggles with bipolar disorder, lives alone, has been prescribed lithium by her GP, and is having extramarital sex with her boss Donald Ellis.

When Stephen asks about her past, she goes on an agitated rant about men and angrily destroys a sand castle they had been building.

At the premiere, a manic Hilary gets on stage and delivers an agitated speech before informing Donald's wife about their affair.

[5] In December, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Crystal Clarke and Tanya Moodie were added to the cast.

The site's critics consensus reads: "Empire of Light contains some fine performances and a few flashes of brilliance, but this tribute to the magic of cinema is disappointingly mundane.

[13] Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com, rating the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, wrote that it "starts out a bit dim and unfocused and becomes sharper and more illuminating as it unreels."

He also praised Roger Deakins' cinematography and Olivia Colman's performance, but was more critical of the character of Stephen: "[H]e remains an abstraction for too long, to the point where it looks like the film is setting him up as more of a plot device (or sacrificial lamb) than a man.

But [Sam] Mendes presents his anger, fear and distress with the same dissociated stare that freezes Hilary in her tracks when she sees skinheads tormenting Stephen on a sidewalk.