The Current War was directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Katherine Waterson, Tom Holland, Tuppence Middleton, Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Hoult.
The plot revolves around the race by scientists Thomas Edison, and partners George Westinghouse and Nikolai Tesla, to produce a form of electricity that's cheap and safe, so that it can go on to power the world.
For performances, Cumberbatch as Edison certainly makes himself stand out reasonably well. He manages to pull off an American accent quite well and demonstrates that this kind of character can be someone the audience is supposed to root for and like one minute, then maybe not be so sure about the next. Tom Holland was fine, his character was fairly likeable and had a very believable dynamic with Cumberbatch. Michael Shannon as Westinghouse was just average, I know what Shannon is capable of as an actor, it's just that here he didn't really live up to those standards. And lastly Nicholas Hoult as Tesla didn't really stand out to me in any way. It just felt like he was trying to prove some kind of versatility by having seemingly perfected a Serbian accent
The film was written by Matthew Mitnick and what stood out to me about the script was how it took its subject matter and the principal people involved and told their story in a way that was informed but not too complicated. I think that was a good choice because it means that those who are experts on the subject matter of this film can go and see it and be satisfied with its depiction; but it's also prepared to cater to the needs of those who don't know too much about the scientific aspects of the film. I would call this an impressive script that addresses its subject matter in a very crowd-pleasing way.
The film was shot by Chung-hoon Chung, and most of his shots for the film are fine, there's one standout shot right at the start of a group of people walking around in darkness. In a way it summed up what the film was going to be about. There are also some strange visual choices at times, being mostly just strip-shaped pictures of animals that come out of nowhere. And I'm sure I saw some editing choices in the film that resembled fast cutting. I know I said something similar in a recent review, but fast cuts in a period drama are beyond out of place and they feel slightly disorientating.
The score was composed by Hauschka and Dustin O`Halloran, and to my disappointment their work failed to impress. It just sounds like another generic period drama score with barely noticeable sounds occasionally put in that are meant to help to give it some form of distinction that it unfortunately does not achieve. It's also very forgettable, but with period drama scores it's a situation where once you have heard one, you have heard them all.
The one flaw that severely damaged my viewing experience with this film is that it was very slow at times, and despite a somewhat well-paced opening it eventually slowed down, scenes dragged on for far too long and it mostly got boring. And the pacing becomes such a problem to a point where it becomes a struggle just to stay invested in the film and its story.
The conclusions that I draw from this are that: The Current War has good performances; a script that manages to be both impressive and crowd-pleasing; one standout shot in the cinematography that sets up the film well, along with some noteworthy visuals; and a very generic score that's very easily forgettable.. But it's severely flawed in its terribly slow pacing and fails to maintain what was a relatively well-paced start.
Having taken all my pros and cons into account, I'm going to give The Current War...
C-
Thank you for reading.
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