Film Review: THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN
Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy star in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios
This is an absolutely charming, lighter-than air period biography/romance/tragi-comedy with a Masterpiece Theatre feel. Perfect Holiday entertainment (appropriate for all ages). The central character, Louis (Benedict Cumberbatch) is, an eccentric, socially awkward polymath, who writes operas, studies science, draws with extravagant dexterity and avidly pursues his various passions. He is a late Victorian gentleman of slender means who is forced to get a new focus after the death of his father leaves him as the sole support of himself and 6 sisters. He has no head for business and for the first time needs to get a job.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios
When an attractive and brilliant, highly-educated governess, Emily (Claire Foy), is hired, the pressure is intense and he is obliged to accept a regular job with The Illustrated London News as chief illustrator. He makes spot-on charicatures and portraits of subjects from all levels of society. Equally adept at drawing animals When a random encounter on a train results in a sketch of a fancy show cat it sets off a fixation with cats whom he anthropomorphizes to a fair-thee-well. His drawings are very popular and he achieves something like success. But, alas, his increasingly erratic behavior and bad choices keep sabotaging his forward momentum. When he finds himself madly in love with Emily and insists on marrying her, the rigid attitudes of the Victorian society will not accept them and they are forced to move to the country.
They live very happily for awhile until bad health news comes as does the stray kitten, Peter, whom they adopt. At his time upper class Victorians did not regard cats as pets. Louis, of course, ever the contrarian, starts publishing cat books, prints and postcards. Stories with only cat characters which are hugely popular and change many attitudes toward cats. He becomes a cat activist and was chairman of National Cat Club and a hero to cat lovers everywhere In spite of it all, he never seems able to get ahead of the dept-saddled family. (He never protected his publishing rights). The pressure of money, a sick wife, a sister who has to be committed, and his own increasingly fragile sanity. He has been diagnosed as a functional schizophrenic. His obsession with the source of electricity, which he sees emanating from cats, among other sources, so are alien to traditional science that the legitimacy of his theories was not taken seriously. We now know that what he was referring to was energy fields, which are very real things. He was obviously some sort of genius.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy star in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Anyway, Cumberbatch projects a manic intensity, as well a real tenderness. The characters are well drawn and well-acted, full of amusing foibles so the movie never gets bogged down by the set backs. It is well-paced and only skates close to sentimentality a few times. Sets, costumes, and cinematography are flawless and beautiful. It is a joy to watch. Tis the season.
