Movie Review: 'The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' Starring Benedict Cumberbatch

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain begins on such a painful note of whimsy that I thought I might gag on it. The first time we meet Benedict Cumberbatch, in the role of real life artist Louis Wain, the performance is so mannered, so broad, and so deeply affected that it feels like a Saturday Night Live parody. It doesn’t help that the early cinematography choices, handheld and bumpy, looks grainy in a way very similar to SNL shorts, those pre-taped bits SNL occasionally does.

Indeed, these early moments look like a parody of a Wes Anderson or Tim Burton film with wacky characters acting inappropriately and broad self-aware performances. The first few minutes do not give a great impression of what is to come in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain as Benedict Cumberbatch appears ready to engage in each character tic and quirky affectation of someone perhaps on the autism spectrum. Thankfully, the movie does improve as the style of director Andrew Sharpe develops a more cohesive and familiar approach as the movie goes along but you have to survive the opening minutes to find that out.

Louis Wain was an artist who rose to fame via a series of drawings he made of his cat, Peter. Right away you can feel the cringe set in. The twee is strong with this story and if indeed you do find this type of comic, romantic exploration of a man-child's life cringe worthy, you might want to sit this one out. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is deeply indulgent in allowing Benedict Cumberbatch to explore each of his fanciful notions of Louis Wain’s unusual behavior, including not only his cat paintings but his general Sheldon Cooper-eqsue lack of social grace.

As I said though, the movie does improve and most of that improvement comes from co-star Claire Foy. Foy plays Emily, Louis Wain’s beloved wife who inspired him to start making paintings of their cat, something he did, at first, simply to entertain her. Emily and Louis met when Emily was hired to be the Governess to Louis’ young sisters. This being the late 1800s in London, the romance was frowned upon as Emily being from a lower class family was supposed to be off-limits to a man of supposedly higher breeding.

Regardless of the judgments of neighbors, and even his own family members feelings, Louis fell deeply in love with Emily and the two married and moved to a small cottage outside of the big city. Here, the couple lived happily for several years before Emily was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Claire Foy’s all too brief performance brings the movie a great stabilizing force. Foy’s Emily is whimsical and quirky but in a far more charming and less offensive way than Louis is portrayed.

Once Emily is gone the movie thankfully does not retreat back to Benedict Cumberbatch’s worst instincts. His Louis is still an oddball and an outcast but director Will Sharpe finally stops focusing on those qualities and instead turns his attention to the cat paintings and the biggest and most well known moments of Louis Wain’s stories career. This section of the movie is genuinely poignant as, though Louis has never been more well known and celebrated, he also failed to capitalize on his work, often giving it away for free and failing to copyright the work so he could profit from its redistribution and merchandising.

Cumberbatch does well to capture the deeply distracted and always bubbling mind of Louis Wain. Once the performance calms down a little in the last act and the tragedy of Louis Wain unfolds the movie finds focus purpose. The style remains whimsical and the production design remains lively and colorful but the sadness at the heart of the story is what makes the story so engaging and interesting. Eventually, Louis Wain’s behavior devolved into what many believed to be the onset of schizophrenia or perhaps Alzheimer's. Wain was committed in the early 1900s and was forgotten for many years despite his fame.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is far from being a bad movie but is far short of greatness as well. The combination of Wes Anderson style oddball characters and Tim Burton style visuals is one that will try the patience of many viewers but those who stick around and get beyond the oddity and affectation of The Electrical Life of Louis Wain may find the movie quite fascinating, funny and moving. It’s certainly not a movie for all audiences but those with patience, and an affinity for Benedict Cumberbatch, will find a movie that they can really enjoy.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain will be released on October 22nd, 2021 by Amazon Studios.