The Current War

Mexican-born director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s efforts to inject as much suspense as possible into the action verge on the hyperactive at times. There’s a pulsing score, a preponderance of close-ups, low camera angles, crane shots and slow-motion. It’s a dizzying menu, aimed at eliminating any hint of fustiness and show that this is a story as modern as the rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. And I suppose it is. But it’s also absorbing enough not to need any artificial means of support.

There is plenty of juicy stuff and even the odd chuckle in this engrossing and informative tech-history movie, with strong performances and pacy editing that propels the story through 13 years.

In the end, The Current War really does feel like a product of its past. And I'm not just talking about its delayed emergence into the light, but rather the 60 drafts and 10-year writing process it took just to get it to Toronto in 2017.

Sumptuous sets and handsome costumes fill this period piece. There are also a few smart parallels to today's celebrity entrepreneurs, and to a world undergoing rapid technological change.

It's all a lot of effort for very little output, sadly. The Current War has lots of flashy lights and whizzy features, but it remains fatally underpowered.

Apart from those nutty camera angles and lenses, which throw you out of the action, The Current War is absorbing...

What it can't do ... is generate even the slightest bit of interest in what happens to any of its characters.

This a watchably stylised period film, with interesting visual setpieces and faces looming up at us out of intricately contrived backgrounds.

For all its aggressive energy, The Current War is an uninvolving bore, making it unlikely to measure up as the kind of Oscar-baity prestige entry the Weinstein Company obviously had in mind.

A stylish portrayal of a literal power struggle based on truly interesting historical figures and events. But it tries to take in too much in too little time, when all it needed was to centre on Edison and Westinghouse.