Tesla is a biopic about inventor Nikola Tesla(Ethan Hawke) that mostly follows his time working for Edison(Kyle MacLachlan) and then George Westinghouse(Jim Gaffigan) with some flashbacks and modern flourishes from a semi-omniscient narrator/character and contemporary music.
Hawke gives an extremely minimal, reserved performance and as a choice it's not particularly interesting. He floats through the film with little agency seemingly doing little, there are a couple scenes of invention but even in those the performance is surprisingly sedate. Both MacLachlan and Gaffigan have a bit more electricity to them but have limited screentime and the film seems more interested in being a meditative visual experience than an actual narrative.
The period production design is gorgeous, the lighting evocative, the score effective but those elements cannot lift the zen like non-performances and relatively lifeless story. Contrast this with this year's The Current War, as they are virtually the same story and cover basically the same exact events, and there is no comparison for which has more life and interest.
A beautiful if extremely ponderous look at the mysterious inventor who remains a mystery.
Currently streaming on Hulu.
Don't See It.
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