Monday Movie Review: The Current War
If you know me at all, you know the reason I went to see The Current War has little to do with an interest in electricity. Or science. Or inventions. It mostly has to do with an interest in seeing Tom Holland and Benedict Cumberbatch in Victorian era suits. Yes please. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the film as a whole (and the suits did not disappoint).
The basic plot of the movie is the war between Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) as they race to become the leading provider of electricity in the United States. The Westinghouse way is cheaper, the Edison way is safer, and thus ensues a game of patents and new products and all kinds of shady business. Along the way, Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult, yum) and Samuel Insull (Holland) provide intellectual support and JP Morgan (Matthew Macfadyen) provides the cash. It’s an interesting look at the way some of our everyday technology came to be. It should be mentioned that the film also focuses part of the subplot on the development of the electric chair and the first man to be put to death using that method. Nothing is shown on screen that was too disturbing, but it is talked about often.
As I’m sitting here thinking about what I liked about this movie, it’s kind of hard to narrow it down to one or two things. The story is compelling, the cast is fabulous, and the direction was solid. I don’t see this film making a killing during awards season, but it was an enjoyable movie to watch. Nothing about it blew me away, but all together as a complete film, it was well done and entertaining. And given some of the crap I’ve seen lately, it was a nice palette cleanser! Overall, it’s get an A- from me.
