'Tesla' Review: A Messy, Disjointed Film That Everyone Should Watch
Michael Almereyda’s Biopic is a Fascinating Failure That Would Make it’s Subject Proud
The biopic: the hardest cinematic genre to get right and arguably the one that yields the worst result if you get it wrong. Short for “biographical picture”, a biopic can either be the window into the soul of a famous or significant person or the cure for insomnia, regardless of how interesting the subject of the movie is. “Tesla” will not leave you understanding much about the Serbian-American inventor and engineer, but to it’s credit, it’s far from boring.
Telling the story of obscure but pioneering inventor Nikola Tesla (played by Ethan Hawke), “Tesla” showcases Tesla’s rise from a grunt worker under Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan) to one of the foremost thinkers of his time to a forgotten figure whose inventions gave birth to the modern world.
“Tesla” is helmed by Michael Almereyda, who’s best known film is 2000’s modern adaptation of “Hamlet”, (also starring Hawke and MacLachlan). A film that chose to have Hawke mumble the famous “to be or not to be” monologue while roaming the aisles of a Blockbuster. In Almereyda’s defence, between “Hamlet” and “Tesla” he’s gone from making a bad stylistic decision to, fatally, making too many good ones, which qualifies as progress.
This seems to be a passion project for Almeryda, who wrote the first draft of the screenplay in the early 80’s. Unfortunately, the final result feels like a first draft; full of good ideas, but with no overarching vision to weave them all together.
This film would have worked better as a play. Almereyda experiments throughout the film with elements of theatre like matte paintings and projections as backdrops, breaking of the fourth wall, musical numbers, and anachronisms. Everyone wears period costumes, but Anne Morgan (Eve Hewson) narrates the film with the help of a Macbook and Google images. In the finale, Tesla stands in front of a microphone and sings the Tears for Fears hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”.
What would work well on stage becomes gimmicky and distracting on film. It feels like what would happen if a film student found a few million dollars stuck between the couch cushions: influence and inspiration without the need for restraint. At some point, someone was going to try Brechtian filmmaking; if nothing else, we now have proof positive of why that doesn’t work. Every film is an educational opportunity, kids.
Failure, however, does not mean waste. There are individually gorgeous shots in this movie that use the background projections and matte paintings to their advantage. A director with a more cohesive vision and firmer stylistic control could use this technique effectively. I feel like that’s the main benefit of “Tesla”, that it can be stripped for parts to be put to much better use down the line.
If you’ve realized there’s been no comment on the performances...that should tell you all you need to know. Hawke is as stoic and emotionally isolated as Tesla reportedly was, and that largely does not change throughout the film, but the actor permitted to show emotional range in a very memorable scene near the conclusion of the story. Every other character is just kind of ‘present’, not really making any impact.
“Tesla” comes with my recommendation, but not to watch it for leisure. Take notes, investigate why this movie works in scenes but not as a whole. In many ways, watching “Tesla” will benefit you more than watching a good movie.