The Current War: Director's Cut
The Weinstein Company | Release Date: October 25, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenOct 24, 2019
Conversations about competing business strategies, which take up a great deal of The Current War, would seem to be a recipe for a dull movie. But the fervor and intelligence Cumberbatch and Shannon bring to their roles make for a gripping experience. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerOct 24, 2019
The Current War is a remarkable period piece, one that evokes the transition from the era of soot and gaslights to the electrical age. The script by Michael Mitnick does not take sides, instead letting the two forefathers of the age of amperes jostle for a multitude of reasons: commerce, ambition, greed, intellectual drive, hubris, and a genuine aim to make the world a better place. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyMary SollisiNov 2, 2019
Cumberbatch’s talent for giving the impression that his brain’s moving a little faster than everyone else’s suits his new subject perfectly — if only the movie moved with the same thrilling momentum. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 22, 2019
The Current War is even better than it has to be. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung give the film a swooping elegance, so that shots that start as close-ups gracefully glide into medium shots, and medium shots give way to vistas. The camera is always moving in a way that suggests grace and flow. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 19, 2019
With this “Director’s Cut,” Gomez-Rejon and his editors have saved a witty, well-acted and gorgeous-looking movie and given it the heart, history and intellectual heft it needed to come off. Read full review
71
The VergeCaroline SiedeOct 23, 2019
Even if The Current War is soft around the edges and a little soggy in the middle, there’s still something appreciably sparky at its core. As overstuffed and frenetic as the film is, in its best moments, The Current War manages to make an everyday utility seem just as magical as it did 120 years ago. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAndy HowellOct 30, 2019
The director’s cut of The Current War moves at a faster pace than the original, the characters are better fleshed out, and the drama is more focused where it needs to be. The new cut has elevated the film from mediocre to interesting. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 24, 2019
While there are some sparks of creativity in the script by Michael Mitnick and some strong performances (most notably from Shannon and Waterston), it fizzles out under the weight of a pompous and meandering storyline that includes cryptic flashbacks to a wartime encounter, and a strange subplot about the advent of the electric chair. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 22, 2019
I never saw the earlier version. This one remains a bit of a mess but a pretty interesting one, as well as one of the few films this year deserving (in both admirable and dissatisfying ways) of the adjective “instructive.” Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshOct 24, 2019
The Current War: Director’s Cut is an interesting yarn. But one just can’t shake the feeling that it’s just a Wikipedia article jazzed up with a lot of fun camera tricks and some cinematic wizardry, though Westinghouse and Edison would have to be proud of the amazing movie magic. Read full review
60
The New York TimesKen JaworowskiOct 24, 2019
As its energetic early scenes give way to a sluggish second half, you start to sense how much better this good-enough movie might have been. Read full review
60
CineVueLucy PopescuJul 24, 2019
The Current War feels like a history lesson with interesting visuals, rather than a compelling, fully-realised historical drama. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinJul 22, 2019
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. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerSep 14, 2017
The Current War employs actors capable of their own eccentric stylizations, and gives them very little leeway to make the material their own. Gomez-Rejon keeps snatching it back with every offbeat composition idea he can muster. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireOct 25, 2019
It may seem ironic that a movie about electrifying the United States should ultimately be so tedious and forgettable, but such is the state of the delayed and troubled drama The Current War: Director’s Cut. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 24, 2019
Any curiosity surrounding the film may have been misplaced – it’s a bit of a bore. Read full review
50
TheWrapDave WhiteOct 23, 2019
It speaks the language of climbers everywhere, but in the process reduces its very real historical innovators to two peevish regional managers in a sniping session, a dry duel set in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 22, 2019
The main problem, despite committed and at times vivid performances by the three main actors — and a mostly perfunctory supporting appearance by Tom Holland as Edison’s loyal assistant Samuel Insull — is the sheer amount of information that the movie tries to convey. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 25, 2019
It’s not a bad film, just a generically bland one. Read full review
40
Time OutOlly RichardsOct 24, 2019
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. Read full review
40
CNNBrian LowryOct 24, 2019
The Current War is a fascinating story, badly told. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 27, 2019
There’s an edge of panicky desperation to the film-making – the lurching, swooping cameras; the skittish editing; the arcing lens flare. It all seems a little too eager to distract from the fact that top-hatted, frock-coated, mutton-chopped chaps burbling on about the relative advantages of the alternating current versus direct current system does not, in fact, make for electrifying drama. Read full review
38
USA TodayPatrick RyanOct 25, 2019
It's all mind-numbingly dull, and critics have exhausted every electrical pun known to man in saying that "Current War" "lacks spark." Read full review
38
Slant MagazinePat BrownSep 29, 2019
The film falls back on the myth of modernity being born in the laps of practical, native-born American ingenuity. Read full review
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