The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Will Sharpe, 2021) Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Olivia Colman (narrator)
I thought this was charming, and Benedict Cumberbatch wonderful — and I don't even like cats.
Peter Bradshaw:
Here is a sentimental biopic that buries you in a fusillade of quirks and tics and flicks, an overegged pudding of a film with producer-star Benedict Cumberbatch once again going into Sherlock Turing mode. ... Director Will Sharpe is a potent talent whose early movies Black Pond and The Darkest Universe I loved – but this is a strained film, overwhelmed with self-consciousness at its own unearned period-biopic prestige. (The Guardian)
Jack Cole:
Right out the gate, it feels as if the film is an excuse for Cumberbatch to lean on his vast arsenal of tics for his portrayal of Wain, which is evident in everything from the man’s struggle to make eye contact in conversation to his propensity to prattle on as if no one were in the same room as him. ... The Electrical Life of Louis Wain uncritically accepts that Wain actually did suffer from schizophrenia, perpetuating harmful stereotypes about mental illness even as its twee artistry seeks to destigmatize them. Sharpe’s film never illuminates the man, only whipping up visual gimmickery as if trying to meet Cumberbatch’s antic performance at its level, and its constant attempts at wry humor, almost all at Louis’s expense, only underline the fundamental thinness of the material. (slantmagazine)
Nell Minow:
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain has the same problem as its real-life subject, in that it goes off in too many directions at once. ... The cool cheeriness of Colman's narration and the postcard-pretty settings may be intended to give us a sense of Wain's mind, at least the part that imagined the whimsical world of his cats. But it makes for an awkward and sometimes insensitive depiction of the more tragic elements of the story. One scene is punctuated with a song on the soundtrack that is primarily "meow"-sounds. The result is an artificial tone that makes the fanciful cats more real to us than Wain himself. (rogerebert)
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Garry Gillard | New: 2 February, 2022 | Now: 2 February, 2022