The Electrifying Life of Louis Wain

This movie won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it sure was mine. This is the kind of little British drama you can usually find on PBS.  It is the true story of Louis Wain. If you are like me, and never heard of him, I suggest you google his name before watching the movie.  Take a look at his very interesting, and sometimes bizarre, drawings and paintings of cats.  Before Louis Wain, people believed cats belonged outside catching mice.  Most would not have dreamed of keeping one in the house. Wain’s drawings were so popular that they helped launch cats as companions and pets.  In “The Electrifying Life of Louis Wain” Benedict Cumberbatch does an outstanding job of showing us Louis’s unorthodox mind.  His life is hard and confusing to him (he may have been autistic or suffered from schizophrenia) until he marries his sisters’ governess – played delightfully by Claire Foy.  Their romance is so sweet and Louis is blissfully happy.  But this being a true story, unfortunately, it doesn’t stay that way.  The electricity in the title refers to the Louis’s belief that electricity can pull us forward in time and help us hold on to our memories.  This idea inspired him to create cats that became more and more psychedelic over the years. But his inner demons cause his life to become sadder and his sanity more tenuous.   Olivia Colman adds her terrific voice as the narrator.  This story gave me a deep appreciation of this man I had never heard of, and his unique and powerful pictures of cats. If you’re interested, you can find this mesmerizing tale on Amazon Prime.