Synopsis
The story of Edison and Westinghouse's battle to be a household name in electricity.
Review
Watching the trailer was a wild ride, lots of good dramatic moments... Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Tom Holland... Tom Holland? I'm not going to lie, I can't see him as anything but angsty teen, or maybe teen romantic lead, or a teen medi-drama lead, you see where I'm going with this, right?
As Edison's dreams become reality he's consumed with success at the cost of things around him. Westinghouse, seeing an opportunity, creates an idea meant to revolutionise Edison's system, a collaboration between the two powerhouses. Edison's reluctance leads the pair into a dirty battle for the win.
At several points while watching this my opinion chopped and changed. I thought I was enjoying it but nothing was really happening. At 1 hour 48 minutes it was probably the perfect length.
With an hour to kill between films I read up a little on the actual story behind the movie. From the few articles I've read it seems like the gist of it is there, but as always there are liberties taken for the sake of some separate storylines and flow. It did at least say "inspired by true events" at the beginning. Tesla probably got the short end of the stick in this story, but the articles I read didn't really mention him much, instead choosing to concentrate on the Edison/Westinghouse connection.
The acting throughout was pretty solid from everyone involved. I was just continually confused watching Tom Holland on the screen, seeing him in drama is going to take some getting used to. Michael Shannon was my favourite thing about the film, the calm and controlled performance holds a great presence in all his scenes. The best of those scenes is right at the end where Westinghouse and Edison talk together, the look on Shannon's face is just so enthralling that I was on the edge of my seat with him.
All the way through The Current War the two sides of the story are progressed well together, I was surprised how long they actually got without the two sides actually being in the same place. The way the whole film is laid out works really well and even though you chop and change between the two it's not a distracting transition.
The thing that IS distracting is where we see the culmination of the fair and the death scenes. Through the first half we're treated to a lovely flow of stories, here we get the two shown together in a very different way to anything in the rest of the film. I'm not sure it works, purely because it is such a leap out of all the consistency they'd given us.
There's one other thing that I want to mention is something to do with the accuracy, I wasn't annoyed during the showing, it was something I discovered in my mini research break. There is a set in the film that is the spitting image of a photo I saw in an article, the instant I saw it on the page I thought of the scene in the film so if it wasn't a direct copy it was certainly a big inspiration... the issue is that the picture is credited with being in a different place to where they use it in the film (unless I misunderstood something), and that bugged me a bit. Why would you try to be accurate and then use it in a different part of the film?
I came out of The Current War feeling like I'd enjoyed the film, but at the same time I felt I had just watched something where not much happened. As with most of these historical recreations I enjoyed it as a one-off viewing but I'd much rather now read up on the actual story rather than see it again.
What you should do
It's worth a watch for some background history and for Michael Shannon but I don't think there's a desperate need to go to the cinema to see it.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
The ability to see a groundbreaking idea and bring it to market.
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