My Review - The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. A Prime Amazon Film
My Rating 7/10
This moving characterisation of talented but mentally troubled artist Louis Wain is yet another fine performance from probably the most talented and diverse actor on the planet today Benedict Cumberbatch. Seeing his brilliant portrayal of Phil Burbank the cruel and austere Montana Cattle rancher and then a few days later to see this consummate actor portray a fragile gentle Victorian Englishman surrounded by his eccentric mother and sisters who falls in love with an older woman blissfully marries then loses her quickly to terminal cancer is utterly remarkable to me that it's the same Benedict Cumberbatch.
This is the true story of a man who later in life was confined to mental institutions as he was alleged to have suffered from schizophrenia. According to some psychiatrists, the onset of schizophrenia can be seen in his works, although the schizophrenia diagnosis is in dispute. I would rather have thought his gentle eccentric and talented artistic temperament aided by a disassociation to other people except his wife and the animals he adored was just more on the autism spectrum not schizophrenia?
Louis Waine has been acknowledged as helping to promote the fascination of the domestic cat and their adoration world over by felinophiles of which I'm one that peaked in Victorian England and lasted through the generations till today .
He achieved this through his drawings, which consistently featured anthropomorphized large-eyed cats although he started drawing dogs until Peter a black and white kitten that he and his wife Emily rescued in their garden from a storm changed both their lives.
I was moved by this story but had a few reservations about the technical aspects of the movie and one piece of miscasting .
As much as I admire Claire Foy I felt her role should have been played by Olivia Colman who is the narrator of the story or an actress like Imelda Staunton.
The character of Emily Richardson is meant to be ten years older than Louis, Claire Foy is actually eight years younger than Benedict Cumberbatch.
Claire Foy is charming as the Governess who comes to live in the mad house that is Louis Waine's home surrounded by loud eccentric women and their even louder children but it's stretching credibility to think that Emily Richardson is ten years older than her husband.
The other problem for me was the 4.3 screen ratio I know it was chosen for artistic reasons and at times this film is as pretty as a Victorian post card but I found it almost squashing the scope of the movie .
The publicity blurb says "Every frame features gorgeous production design by Suzie Davies and elegant costumes by Michael O'Connor, captured in creamily luscious cinematography by Erik Alexander Wilson, though the film is shot in the boxy 4:3 ratio, perhaps to simulate the feeling of a canvas on screen.
Sorry Merchant Ivory achieved the same effect on the wide screen plus wonderful films of artists lives like Turner and Van Gough didn't need 4.3 to stimulate the feeling of a canvas . The other irritating addition to the film on Amazon Prime are the subtitles to explain what is obvious the title of a book on a desk for instance that the viewer can read for themselves? I just found it distracting but I agree it's a very pretty film to watch ,especially the outdoor garden scenes.
Saying all that I'm probably nit picking ,on the whole The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a fine and very moving film . It yet again puts Benedict Cumberbatch as my favourite actor of the moment . I've seen him play a drug addict in the superb Patrick Melrose, a wartime code breaker in The Imitation Game a monster in Frankenstein an angry cattle rancher in The Power of the Dog ,a sleuth in Sherlock Holmes ,a Sci Fi villain in Dr Strange , a King in The Hollow Crown , a prisoner of war in The Mauritanian and in and on what a range but can he do a musical ? I'm sure he will try .
