THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUSI WAIN - cinemabang.com

Benedict Cumberbatch gives his usual flawless performance in a film where his performance is one of the few things that you could come away from this film raving about. Director Will Sharpes, The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain is beautiful to look at but the story is so slow that it almost becomes tedious.

If you’re not aware, as I was, Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch) was an artist who, from the late 1800’s to the 1930s produced several hundred drawings and illustrated 100 children’s books. His work, which consisted mainly of cats, became famous appearing in national papers and postcards. His work was partially responsible for making the cat a popular house pet, Wain himself was chairman of the National Cat Club from 1998 and 1911.

Wain himself was a bit of an eccentric and suffered from mental health issues throughout his life. As well as cats Wains other love and person who has to put up with his health issues and eccentricity’s is his wife Emily (Claire Foy).

Sharpe’s film is without doubt interesting, and Foy and Cumberbatch are always watchable whilst on screen, but the story is heavy going and does feels at times as if you’re watching a BBC television adaption of a period drama such as Little Dorrit, which coincidently Claire Foy played a major part in way back in 2008. If you are a fan of Dickens and similar types of period drama you might enjoy The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain if not it might be a bit of a hard watch.