'Tesla' Review: Ethan Hawke excels as Nikola Tesla in a biopic that fails to capture inventor's genius
While Nikola Tesla may not have gotten his due in his lifetime — often being overshadowed by Thomas Edison's marketing skills — the genius inventor is now being paid homage to in many different ways. There's Elon Musk's company, Tesla, there's Christopher Nolan's own version of Tesla in his film, 'The Prestige', and most recently, IFC Films' eponymously named 'Tesla' attempts to paint the most definitive picture of the inventor yet. However, 'Tesla', like most biopics on historic men, tends to blow history out of proportion and tends to make an enigma on the man Tesla really was.
'Tesla' stars Ethan Hawke as Nikola Tesla and is directed by Michael Almereyda, who also wrote and produced for the film. The film also stars Eve Hewson as Anne Morgan, the daughter of financier JP Morgan (played by Donnie Keshawarz), who narrates -- with anachronistic instances such as her typing on a Macbook and asking viewers to Google both Tesla and her father -- Tesla's life. Along with Hawke and Hewson, Kyle MacLachlan plays Thomas Edison and Jim Gaffigan plays Tesla's financial backer, George Westinghouse. The movie is also peppered with other anachronisms such as iPhones, and modern music (in one scene, Hawke as Tesla sings Tears for Fears' 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World'), perhaps in a testament to all the things the 19th-century pioneer imagined that have become a reality today -- so much so that we cannot imagine life without these amenities.
However, for all it intended to do, 'Tesla' comes across as a biopic that falls short on capturing what gave Nikola Tesla the reputation of being an eccentric genius. Hawke's portrayal of the inventor is excellent -- as can be expected -- and perhaps this is why we may have expected more from 'Tesla'. As often in most biographical dramas about eccentric men -- especially those were not to have any female companions -- 'Tesla' plays up the scientist's, shall we say, sexual appeal, with not one but two women being interested in him, including Anne Morgan and French actress, Sarah Bernhardt (played by Rebecca Dayan).
Morgan is made to be a woman who is completely enamored by Tesla that we learn nothing about her own life, including the fact that she was an activist for women's rights, especially for those of working women. In fact, it even shows Tesla being attracted to Bernhardt, but in real life, it is not clear if Tesla was even attracted to women -- in the August 10, 1924 issue of the Galveston Daily News, a headline read, "Mr. Tesla Explains Why He Will Never Marry."
The article explains that he held women on a "lofty pedestal," those who possessed "delicate qualities of mind and soul that made her in these respects far superior to man." He also said, "In place of the soft-voiced, gentle woman of my reverent worship, has come the woman who thinks that her chief success in life lies in making herself as much as possible like man -- in dress, voice, and actions, in sports and achievements of every kind." As such, the devotion of a large part of the second half of 'Tesla' to the inventor and his supposed relationships with women seemed quite misplaced.
One of the most interesting aspects of Tesla's life is his rivalry with his former employer, Thomas Edison and largely, the first half the film shows us why Tesla and Edison may have harbored ill feelings toward each other. It is a pity then that MacLachlan as Edison was sidelined as the movie progressed. Another failure of the movie is in confronting NTesla's own failures and while the film mentions that Tesla died a destitute, it does not chronicle the events that led to the final years of his life.
'Tesla' will be available to rent on virtual theatres on Friday, August 21.