63
Metascore
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorCumberbatch excels once again at breathing life into a sorrowful genius.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberThe Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberCumberbatch and Foy play beautifully together; the chemistry is palpable, and both performers know how to charm audiences without overselling the romance.
- 70VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeWhether one considers said work to be worthy of a feature-length movie is almost entirely beside the point, since Stephenson and Sharpe have unearthed so much else that’s engaging about Wain’s story.
- 65SlashfilmChris EvangelistaSlashfilmChris EvangelistaThe Electrical Life of Louis Wain is often quite charming and sweet. But there's an undercurrent of sadness running through the entire affair, and even when the film tries to convince us that there were good times among the bad, it's hard not to think how awful life must have been for several characters here.
- 65TheWrapMonica CastilloTheWrapMonica CastilloAs tragic biopics go, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain isn’t interested in wallowing in misery. Instead, this amusing retelling of Wain’s life is a way to introduce his quirky illustrations to a new generation, putting them in a new light that’s more in line with the irreverent and animated creatures Wain once imagined years ago.
- 50IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichSharpe’s portrait is so determined to capture the full rainbow of Wain’s singular hues that it soon becomes a muddled soup of mismatched quirks.
- 50The PlaylistGregory EllwoodThe PlaylistGregory EllwoodYou can certainly respect Sharpe for taking a big swing in this regard, but he can’t bring the proceedings back to earth when the audience needs some sort of emotional investment. This also ends up hampering Cumberbatch, who is giving one of the most committed performances of his life, but only to find it buried under all of the film’s extracurricular aspects.
- 50Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganBoxily framed, the film tries out several visual looks, wandering tonally through its own aesthetic maze.
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawDirector Will Sharpe is a potent talent whose early movies Black Pond and The Darkest Universe I loved – but this is a strained film, overwhelmed with self-consciousness at its own unearned period-biopic prestige.
- 38Slant MagazineJake ColeSlant MagazineJake ColeThe film charts Louis Wain’s slow, long mental breakdown in ways that tackily oscillate between the pitying and the whimsical.