Current retelling lacks spark
The Current War (M, 107 mins) Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Reviewed by James Croot ★★1⁄2
Fans of Aussie rock bands be warned, this AC vs DC battle isn’t the story of Malcolm and Angus Young. Instead, it’s a much older historical and Thunderstruck-free
drama about the rivalry that broke out between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) over which electricity delivery system (alternating or direct current) would become the American standard.
It’s also a film that very nearly never saw the light of day. I first caught director Alfonso GomezRejon’s (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) star-studded (the cast also includes Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Macfadyen and Tuppence Middleton) and highly anticipated period piece late one night at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival.
The highlight of my evening was meeting acclaimed Hollywood producer Gale Anne Hurd in the lengthy queue for the auditorium and telling her how she had inspired so many 12-year-old Kiwis like myself to attempt to bluff our way underage into Aliens.
As for that night’s movie, it was OK but felt overly talky, inert and a little colourless.
However, The Current War’s
fate wasn’t sealed then, that seemingly came a few weeks later when the initial allegations against one of the movie’s producers Harvey Weinstein surfaced.
As the Weinstein Company fell apart, War essentially went into limbo. Eventually, the rights were sold and now, almost 21⁄2 years later, it has finally surfaced here in New Zealand, albeit in a slightly different format.
Thanks only to discovering a contractual ‘‘loophole’’ that gave one of the film’s other producers – one Martin Scorsese – final cut approval, Gomez-Rejon was able to trim about 10 minutes off the running time and substitute in a new score.
While those changes have improved the experience, Current War still feels bogged down in exposition and lacks spark.
Neither Shannon’s (The Shape of Water) Westinghouse nor Cumberbatch’s (Sherlock) ‘‘wizard of Menlo Park’’ (‘‘a man who can’t be bothered to tie shoes, let alone attend a social event’’) truly compel.
Their rivalry escalates from a dinner snub into dirty dealings as Edison tries to undermine alternating current by suggesting publicly how easily it can electrocute animals.
The arrival of Hoult’s (Tolkien) futurist Nikola Tesla enlivens proceedings (though he’s not a patch on David Bowie’s turn as the same man in The Prestige), but Michael Mitnick’s (Vinyl) stodgy script telegraphs a predictable climatic showdown, as the central pair compete to illuminate the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.
However, what really undermines the admittedly impressive production design, costuming and casting is GomezRejon’s decision to constantly have the camera in motion.
Sure it leads to some unusual angles and vertiginous moments but, after a while, it simply becomes an irritating distraction.
In the end, The Current War really does feel like a product of its past. And I’m not just talking about its delayed emergence into the light, but rather the 60 drafts and 10-year writing process it took just to get it to Toronto in 2017.
The recent reshoots and retooling just feel like the last straw of a movie that always felt too much of a patchwork. Maybe it should have stayed as the musical it was once intended to be.