It looks good but The Current War is more artifice than content, more style than narrative as Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game, The Mauritanian) locks horns with George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon – Take Shelter, Nocturnal Animals) in the race to provide America with electricity.
Household name Edison had the edge, a man who patented something every other week, but Westinghouse had a business-savy wife (Katherine Waterstone – Fantastic Beasts, Steve Jobs). The race takes no prisoners – even the brilliance of Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult – The Favourite, The Rebel in the Rye) is left in their wake.
Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, TV’s American Horror Story) tells his story in an overly frenetic, glimpsed moment way, resulting in an entertaining but superficial instructional insight. Easy to watch, almost immediately forgotten.
Rating: 59%
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