Review of Tesla

Tesla (I) (2020)
6/10
Interesting ideas, ruined by one bad actress.
28 September 2020
As usual, Ethan Hawke gives his all as the great inventor, and the anachronistic approach and unusual visual style might not suit everyone's taste, but I especially enjoyed those aspects of the movie.

However, the passive narration by, and soulless performance of Eve Hewson sorely lacks any conviction or talent, which ruins the entire experience. In a way, I consider this quite surprising, since she's playing the daughter of Thomas Edison, an egocentric, greedy hypocrite; I'd think this role shouldn't be too hard for her, as her actual father ihas repeatedly proven himself to be a blatant fraud, who once made an empty private jet fly halfway around the world to pick up his lucky cowboy hat, all the while preaching about the environment - not to mention moving the headquarters of his band to the Netherlands to avoid paying taxes. But daddy has the money and the connections to forge a career for her.

Even without this background information, I'd still say she's the reason this movie doesn't work, and it's a pity; this could've been the masterpiece Nikola Tesla deserves, but for the time being, we'll have to wait for a truly worthy movie depicting his wondrous genius.
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