Movie Review: Tesla

While the resting image from the new film Tesla may not have been intended to be the sight of Ethan Hawke as the titular iconic inventor singing—on what appears to be an open mic stage setting (and in character)—the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” it is, in fact, rather difficult to wrest that performance out of one’s psyche when ultimately evaluating the entirety of the film. This teetering of the balance between factual account and flight of fancy does the film no favors and casts a rather cumbersome shadow across the totality of the work.

The film starts off as a fairly straightforward story, albeit with a few jumps around its own often sketchy timeline, as it follows Tesla and his bid to breathe life into his bold vision of a system of electrical distribution. Of course, Tesla’s attempts are bombarded with obstacles, the least of which is his ongoing competition with fellow inventor and former employer Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan). Then, after numerous financial catastrophes and countless legal entanglements, Tesla ultimately passes away penniless and very much in the shadow of his contemporaries, only to be resurrected and recognized by history for the remarkable inventor he was.

Ethan Hawke in “Tesla.”

Of course, all of this depends on the conceit that writer/director Michael Almeryeda can, along with Hawke, make Tesla the man a relatable and sympathetic character. They succeed for most of the film, but numerous angles (such as the aforementioned performance of the Tears for Fears song) completely undermine all of the positives they have brought to the table.

As Anne Morgan, a potential love interest for Tesla, Eve Hewson narrates the film and appears onscreen from time to time to propel the story forward; she too gets in on the anachronistic time bending, frequently holding an object, such as a cell phone, while still appearing in character. Instead of explaining that such a modern wonder would never have been possible were it not for a person like Tesla, the film simply feels too enamored with its own cleverness to be able to get anything tangible or meaningful across.

While Tesla was indeed a man out of time and his inventions and theories could be considered vastly superior to those of his contemporaries, Tesla the film does little to establish those fact in any profound or meaningful way. Instead, it simply states that Tesla the man had these very good ideas, and, in a way, that proves far too clever a concept for Tesla the film to pull off.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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