‘The Current War,’ directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was originally produced by Harvey Weinstein, but two years ago the film was shuffled. Gomez-Rejon re-edited the film when it found new distributors. It felt promising to me, particularly because of the cast assembled here – Benedict Cumberbatch plays Thomas Edisona nd Michael Shannon plays George Westinghouse, and the film focuses on their rivalry on who will first bring electricity to the masses.

The problem is, we don’t really get a full sense of these characters, and while Cumberbatch and Shannon are both effective in their respective roles, they are saddled with a cumbersome script. Cue in some more characters – Nicholas Hoult as Nikolai Tesla and Tom Holland as Edison’s assistant – and you never know what the film is really trying to say. I wanted the film to work because I was rooting for all these actors (I think I would watch Hoult in anything) and while the film was shot beautifully, their words felt empty.