It's a movie about a movie theater. The theater in question is called the Empire. In reality, the theater is the Dreamland Margate, which is the cinema at the entrance to an amusement park along the southeastern coast of England. Reading about the history of this amusement park makes me wish writer-director Sam Mendes had made the film about the rise and fall of Dreamland. The word "Dreamland" even adorned the cinema. Mendes changed the signage to read "Empire" instead. Margate itself seems like an interesting seaside town. If Mendes had examined that town and that park, especially in the time of the 1980's to 2000's, that might have been more compelling.
Clearly, this cinema in particular must have captured the imagination of Mendes personally. What also must have captured Mendes' imagination is Steve McQueen's Small Axe (2020), which is about the relationship between Black people in and around London, England, and the metropolitan police force there. The mainly White police committed racist discrimination and harassment against the Black community. In fact, McQueen's series references the 1981 Brixton riot, which was a significant event in the tension between police and Black people in that area. Mendes references that same 1981 event as well, but, unlike McQueen, Mendes centers his film on a White woman, experiencing mental illness and who has her eyes open to the blatant racism that exists around her. The narrative is bordering the "Magical Negro" trope, which has been a problem in Hollywood storytelling for decades.

Olivia Colman (The Father and The Favourite) stars as Hilary, a lonely woman living in Margate in an apartment building called Paragon Court. It's revealed that she was recently released from a mental hospital. She's specifically on Lithium, a medication she has to take to control her psychological problems. It seems to put her in a quiet and depressed state. She mainly just gets up and goes to work, do her job with her head down and goes home. She does have a sense of humor and charm to her. She can have a laugh with her younger co-workers, but she mainly keeps to herself.
Micheal Ward (Beauty and Blue Story) co-stars as Stephen, a young Black man who starts working at the Empire theater in December 1980 and continues working there till the middle of 1981. He's aware of the racism and specifically the rise of skinheads and he's mostly just trying to get by. He does dream of becoming an architect, but the film simply name-checks Stephen's aspirations. There is a moment where he looks at wonder at the structure of the Empire theater and is perhaps marveling at its architecture, but we don't see much of his interest outside of that. He's mainly there to be the love interest and object of sexual desire for Hilary.

For that, the film is bordering the "Magical Negro" trope, but what perhaps keeps it from crossing the line is the fact that we get a little of Stephen's home life, interactions with other Black characters outside of Hilary's perspective or point-of-view. We also get a glimpse into "rude boy" culture, which was an expression of young Jamaicans living in the United Kingdom from the 60's to the 90's. We get it through the kind of music Stephen likes and his style of dress, particularly the pork pie hats that he's always wearing. Unfortunately, it's just a glimpse and doesn't go as far as McQueen's Small Axe series.
Toby Jones (The Hunger Games and Captain America: The First Avenger) plays Norman, the projectionist at the Empire theater. Through him, we get some of that reverence for how film exhibition used to be so majestic and regal, as well as glorious. We also get a little bit of the technical and scientific craft behind film projection. Mendes could have done more with it. Toward the end, Norman starts to mentor Stephen and introduce him to the technical and scientific craft, but the awe and wonder of it never truly translates. Stephen likes cinema, but it's not a passion for him, so it's nice but it falls on rather deaf ears.

Stephen does quote films to Hilary briefly in a scene or two, but, those quotes also literally fall on deaf ears. Despite Hilary working at a cinema, she doesn't watch the films that play at her place of work. Getting her to watch a film or even appreciate them for herself is the arc of her character. Yet, it gets muddled in this interracial love story that's also about Hilary realizing that racism exists. Delving deeper into Hilary's mental illness felt like where the film was going and indeed should have gone, but instead it too gets muddled.
Mendes wants to end the film with this triumphant moment of Hilary discovering the power of cinema. Strangely though, it's established that Hilary loves poetry. She quotes poets, such as Alfred Tennyson and W.H. Auden. Instead of leaning into that power of cinema, the film instead ends with her quoting another such poet. It doesn't end with her quoting a film or filmmaker. She quotes a poet, so what was the point of having the setting be a movie theater? The message or that so-called triumphant moment falls flat.

Rated R for sexual content, language and brief violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 55 mins.
In theaters.