Review: Tesla

Despite some strong choices that don’t quite pay off, Tesla is an unusually solid biopic. In a sea of boring, snore-inducing historical dramas, this movie holds your attention and even manages to teach you something along the way.  

Centering on the life of Nikola Tesla (Ethan Hawke), we see his tussles with Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan), his friendship with J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne (Eve Hewson), and his attempts to garner support for his inventions, including his world-changing innovations with electricity. 

Nikola Tesla is an immeasurable figure in history. I’m not going to summarize his life here. Wikipedia exists if you’re interested in that sort of thing. But, tackling him in movie form is a rather daunting undertaking. How does one approach it? Do you take on a birth to death structure? An excerpt from his life? A mixture of the two?

Tesla approaches things with what could be described as a mixture. However, it does this in a rather unusual way. A significant portion of the film has to do with Tesla’s relationship with banking heiress Anne Morgan. She serves a dual role. She is also the movie’s narrator. As the movie jumps forward and back through time and in and out of events, both real and imaginary, Morgan is there to provide us with a narrative lifeline, as well as provide historical context and background for major figures who come into Tesla’s life. I enjoyed this approach. She uses a laptop, projector, and google, even referencing the amount of search results that come up for certain characters names. It’s a fun anachronistic flourish and not the only one in the movie, but more on that later. 

The movie often feels like a feature-length biopic directed by Ken Burns. Many a time, the film seems more interested in conveying information rather than emotion, especially early on. Clearly, writer/director Michael Almereyda is fascinated by his subject and wants to tell the audience all about him. It’s endearing and interesting. I could see someone disengaging from the film because of this. It was like a really well-made, well-acted History Channel dramatization. I don’t mean that as an insult either. I like this about the movie. 

I also don’t mean to lead you to believe the movie has zero emotional weight. Ethan Hawke’s performance is wonderful, as is Jim Gaffigan’s in a supporting role as George Westinghouse (he once again shines in a dramatic performance, a la Chappaquiddick. I’m excited to see him continue to take heavier roles). Hawke imbues Tesla with a passion and reserve that compels you to root for him. When the movie throws information dumps at you, which I very much enjoyed, Hawke provides an emotional connection to the character. We never lose sight of his personal story, so the more historical perspective of the movie is anchored by a fully fleshed-out person to provide a sense of humanity. 

Unfortunately, this infotainment approach has its limits. The movie can feel disjointed at times. It feels like we are getting snapshots of scenes. I enjoyed the movie’s commitment to teach, but I really wished it would have allowed Hawke’s performance to drive the narrative. I wanted to live in these scenes. I wanted the movie to slow down and sit with Tesla in his quiet contemplative moments. I understand that the movie was not going for this, but what they did provide felt like it was always at an arm’s length from me. It’s anachronistic style and scene brevity kept me from becoming fully engrossed. 

Speaking of Tesla‘s use of anachronism, there is much more of it present than what I mentioned earlier. At times, characters use cell phones and computers. Electronic music appears in an otherwise period correct score. Lighting cues break from the norm and become flashy in a moment. Exteriors are shot on a soundstage with matte backdrops rather than on real locations, which is not exactly anachronistic but is still a bold artistic choice worth noting. Showing Tesla’s influence by having technology he either influenced or dreamed up appear where it shouldn’t was kinda fun. However, it doesn’t always slide in very well, as evidenced by the electronic music-based sequence with Sarah Bernhardt (Rebecca Dayan). There’s also a different musical sequence towards the end of the movie that I don’t know how to feel about. I won’t spoil it, but it stands out incredibly. Each person will likely react quite differently to it. I find myself more in the middle. I see what they were going for, but I don’t know if it fully works for the movie. But, what a damn swing for the fence the movie takes with it. I have to applaud the intent at least. 

Conclusion:

Tesla provides interesting subject matter with a really good performance from Ethan Hawke at the center of it. Some of its stylistic choices don’t quite land, and the pacing can feel too fast due to its more information-heavy focus. But overall, I liked it a bunch, and I would recommend anyone give it a watch.