PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, NOVEMBER 26, 2021
The Electric Life of Louis Wain suffers from identity crisis
Review
BY T.J. REID
For the Keizertimes
Every family has at least one crazy
cat person, and if you think otherwise I
have some bad news for you: That crazy
cat person is probably you. Thanks to
the internet, the goofy beasts are every-
where today. But in Louis Wain's day,
appreciating cats as anything other
than rat and mice catchers was a bit
of an oddity — if the bizarre film I just
watched is to be believed.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain,
a shiny new Amazon original movie,
chronicles the life and trials of the
world’s first feline meme creator and
does so in a way that is occasionally
sweet, occasionally tragic, and almost
always weird, if not always in a good
way.
The Electrical Life, like its main
character, exudes some really weird
energy right off the bat and doesn't
stop doing so throughout thanks to
some truly schizophrenic filmmaking
(which is not always a bad thing).
There are some funny bits that
underscore the eccentricity of the Louis
Wain character (portrayed by Benedict
Cumberbatch), but heartbreaking cir-
cumstances in his life often bring the
film crashing back to reality. The for-
mer sequences are usually done with
some real creative flair, with interest-
ing camera angles, color palettes, and
music (which uses the otherworldly
sounding theremin and musical saw to
great effect), the latter with much more
traditional shots and score.
This chaotic combination of weird
and melancholy often works in the
movie’s favor, but also keeps it from
having a concrete identity of its own.
The same can be said of its main char-
acter, who is still a bit of a mystery to
me even after spending two hours with
him. But I suppose it’s also annoying to
me when biopics reduce a real histori-
cal figure down to three or four easily
identifiable character traits, so I don’t
know what I would have had them do
that was different than what they actu-
ally did.
Ultimately I feel like The Electrical
Life should have gone all-out with the
weird instead of only utilizing it half of
the time. Weird and sad are not exclu-
sive , after all, but you wouldn't know
it from watching this with the shifts in
tone and visuals. As it stands, I ended
up asking myself questions like “What
exactly is this movie?” and “What are
the themes they’re trying to explore?”
and “Wait, did the subtitles just trans-
late that cat?" pulling me out of the
story as a result (and this confusion
only gets progressively worse as the
character slowly loses touch with
reality).
But there is no arguing with the
fact that The Electrical Life is a com-
petently made film, from the directing
to the scriptwriting to the acting (espe-
cially Felix Wilde, Windsor Wilde, and
Norbury Ackland, who all play Peter
the cat at various stages in his life and
should be given a good amount of
treats for their good work if they hav-
en’t already). I just wish it had more of
a concrete idea of what it was.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is
a harmless watch that won’t change
your life but does a pretty good job of
celebrating the lives of those that not
only put up with cats but also, against
all reason, enjoy doing so. Check it out.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is
now available on Amazon Prime.
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