The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain feels like a warm, wistful storybook that gradually blooms into something stranger and more luminous, capturing how art can be both a refuge and a flare fired into the dark. Benedict Cumberbatch gives Louis a fragile, ferociously imaginative soul, while Claire Foy grounds the film with a tenderness that makes the romance feel less like a biopic checkbox and more like a lifeline. Will Sharpe’s direction leans into a playful, painterly vibe—sometimes charming, sometimes quietly devastating—until the visuals themselves seem to echo the way Louis sees the world. It does wade into grief and mental illness with scenes that can be tough to sit through, but if you’re open to a true-life drama that’s equal parts gentle comedy and aching beauty, it’s a film that stays with you like a beloved sketch you keep returning to.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is clearly trying to be a tender, offbeat portrait of a gifted man sliding from love and success into grief and mental illness, with a whimsical visual style that mirrors his art. When it works, Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy give it real emotional pull, and the cat-driven charm can be genuinely sweet. But the film leans hard into quirk and flourishes, sometimes to the point of feeling twee and over-designed, and the storytelling can wander rather than digging into the wider context of Wain’s life and work. If you want a focused, informative biopic, or you’re not up for an emotionally heavy story dressed in playful packaging, this may test your patience even if you admire the performances.