The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

Benedict Cumberbatch shines in a splendidly unusual biopic.

It could well be the case that most people who go to see this arrestingly offbeat biopic will have not have heard of Louis Wain. In fact, he was an English artist who lived from 1860 to 1939 (I know that because I looked him up on Wikipedia). He was acclaimed for his drawings, especially for those depicting anthropomorphised cats and kittens with large eyes. Indeed, it has been suggested that it was the popularity of these works that led to cats becoming favoured as pets in Britain. But, while art played a crucial role in Wain’s life, he was also obsessed with theories about electricity as a life force. If that might suggest eccentricity, there was indeed something of that in Louis Wain. Ultimately, though, he became a tragic figure suffering from a form of schizophrenia and spending his later years in hospitals and institutions. 

Wain’s earlier life was not without adversities either. He was a man easily taken in and not adroit over money matters and consequently he was ill-equipped when fate required him to look after his widowed mother and no less than five unmarried sisters. Nor was it straightforward when he fell in love. He married Emily Richardson in 1883 but she was a governess and furthermore was some ten years older than he was. In those days such an age difference in a married couple was regarded as scandalous in itself. In addition, the fact that he was marrying somebody of a lower class raised eyebrows. All this opprobrium was bad enough but, this being a genuine love match, it turned into real tragedy when Emily died of cancer within a few years of their marriage. 

The man behind The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is the actor Will Sharpe who, while not appearing on screen, is here making his first solo directorial cinema feature as well as collaborating with Simon Stephenson in the writing of it. In the event the film does prove to be somewhat uneven, but not for the reasons that one might expect and a great deal of it is highly enjoyable and not just because of the splendid performances to be found in it. Sharpe’s approach is strikingly adventurous and one that totally avoids any sense of this being a staid and standard period biopic. The film sets its own tone and, especially in its first half and against the odds, it is highly successful. First of all, the tale has a narrator and that gives it a sometimes caustic modern voice sufficiently featured as to become part of the film’s character. It helps, of course, that the words are spoken by Olivia Colman. Next, there’s a variety of tone which, while respecting the tragic elements, allows for many humorous touches. At times these come close to caricature, but that aspect does fit the period setting because it feels Dickensian, a reminder of the comic episodes that one can find in many a serious novel by the great Victorian. The blend of opposites is also present visually: the use of the old 4:3 ratio may add to the sense of a past age, but stylised images are often applied and these bring in a modern feel. Uniting the various moods so that they cohere is a superb music score that plays an important role in making the film work and it is interesting to note that it is by the director’s brother, Arthur Sharpe. But that does not mean that Will Sharpe is unaware of how some emotional scenes play better without any music being added. 

Fascinating as the handling of the material is, this is a film that certainly gains from the casting. The actor playing Wain is Benedict Cumberbatch who is now 45 so it could be argued that he is too old for the part, not least because at the time of his scandalous marriage Louis Wain was a mere 23 years old. But the fact is that Cumberbatch sinks himself so thoroughly into the character that such details matter not at all. Furthermore, the role is totally different from any other that Cumberbatch has played and that adds its own appeal (in passing let it also be noted that when it comes to the later stages of Wain’s life the make-up ages the actor convincingly). Apart from the odd memory shot, Emily is, of course, absent from the second half of the film, but in this role Claire Foy is an absolute joy: she brings vivacity and individuality into play in a way that seems entirely natural and unforced but which few other actresses could have achieved so memorably. Andrea Riseborough is rather less well served as the bossy sister Caroline Wain, but Toby Jones scores yet again as Sir William Ingram the editor of the Illustrated London News who employed Louis Wain early in his career. 

The second half of the film is less telling and there are times when the stylisation is here taken further and becomes too much. It’s all just too cute when, very briefly, the mewing of a cat is converted into words rendered in subtitles and, as for drama, when it comes to screen visualisations of certain hallucinations suffered by Louis they come across inappropriately as special effects. There are also moments that do smack of the movies of an earlier age: hearing reprises on the soundtrack of words spoken earlier by Emily is a very old-fashioned device and there is certainly sentimentality in the film’s closing image. 

But if the style, fascinating as it is, sometimes falters, it is nevertheless the case that the eventual weakness of this film lies in the material. The early life of Louis Wain readily lends itself to a feature film but inevitably treating the rest of it on screen results in a piece that is increasingly episodic as it traverses the fifty years after the death of Emily. There is also a sense that the film is straining too hard to justify the importance of what Louis Wain achieved. As part of this the film stresses the pleasure that his work gave and links it to the bigger idea that, whatever personal tragedies exist in life, the world itself is beautiful. This is ultimately expressed in a sequence of almost abstract images akin to an apotheosis, a sequence reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001 - A Space Odyssey. But it all seems exaggerated. Consequently, by the close one has to regard this film as an ambitious work that has fallen short of its goal and that may make my star rating seem rather too generous. However, the shortcomings are far outweighed by so much that is both adventurous and successful, so pleasurable indeed, that I do not hesitate to recommend this work as one to seek out. 

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, Toby Jones, Sharon Rooney, Hayley Squires, Stacy Martin, Aimee Lou Wood, Phoebe Nicholls, Adeel Akhtar, Asim Chaudhry, Julian Barratt, Richard Ayoade, Nick Cave, Taika Waititi, Jamie Demetriou, Dorothy Atkinson, Crystal Clarke, Sophia Di Martino, and with the voice of Olivia Colman as narrator. 

Dir Will Sharpe, Pro Adam Ackland, Ed Clarke, Leah Clarke and Guy Heeley, Ex Pro Benedict Cumberbatch, Screenplay Simon Stephenson and Will Sharpe, from a story by Simon Stephenson, Ph Erik Alexander Wilson, Pro Des Suzie Davies, Ed Selina Macarthur, Music Arthur Sharpe, Costumes Michael O’Connor. 

Amazon Studios/Film 4/Shoebox Films/Sunny March/StudioCanal-Studio Canal.
111 mins. UK. 2021. Rel: 1 January 2022. Cert. 12A .