Miss Flicks

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain: Film Review

After seeing Benedict Cumberbatch as a jealous, nasty cowboy in The Power of the Dog quite recently, it was a welcome change of pace seeing him as the eccentric painter Louis Wain in Will Sharpe‘s comedy-drama, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.

This biographical film tells the story of Wain’s life and takes place between the 1880s and 1930s. In particular, it focuses on how Wain struggled to provide for his family – his mother and five sisters – while working as the illustrator for The Illustrated London News after his father died. He hires a governess named Emily Richardson (Claire Foy) to help look after and educate his sisters and falls madly in love with her, causing scandal. Undeterred by the furore, Wain and Richardson get married and eventually take in a stray kitten called Peter, an unusual pet in Victorian times. Peter becomes a muse to Wain and sparks his long-running passion for making paintings of anthropomorphic cats.

I had no idea who Wain was or what the film would be about and it was a pleasant surprise. The painter suffered a lot of tragedies in his life and the film could have easily been quite dark and depressing but Sharpe manages to maintain a frivolous and light-hearted tone. This is helped by Olivia Colman‘s positive and upbeat narration; she keeps the film moving at a brisk pace so we never dwell on the sad moments for too long. Her chipper narration is also quite funny and made me smile. The film as a whole is amusing most of the time and laugh-out-loud funny occasionally, particularly during the scenes where the cats get subtitles.

Wain is a peculiar and quirky fellow and Cumberbatch convincingly channels his nervous, awkward energy. Wain seems in a constant hurry – his drawing, walking and speech are all rapid-fire. I felt sorry for him having the burden of his entire family on his shoulders and found him endearing in a way. I loved his relationship with Richardson and thought Cumberbatch and Foy made a solid partnership of like-minded oddballs.

Andrea Riseborough plays the oldest Wain sister Caroline, a constant thorn in the painter’s side. She always nags him about their finances and providing for them, even though he’s doing his best. Toby Jones is well cast as Wain’s editor and supporter Sir William Ingram, and Wain’s other sisters are played by the likes of Stacey Martin, Hayley Squires, Aimee Lou Wood and Sharon Rooney. There are a ton of familiar faces in this film in small roles too – keep an eye out for Taika Waititi, Richard Ayoade, Nick Cave, Adeel Akhtar and Asim Chaudhry.

This is a really lovely film that is a must for cat people. This is filled with so many different adorable felines and the scenes involving them (particularly the subtitled ones) brought me so much joy.

In cinemas from 1st January