Genre: Biography | Drama | History

Director: Mike Leigh

Writer: Mike Leigh (screenplay)

Stars: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson

This film explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.

Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner is both magnificent to look at yet disengaging to process. I wasn’t as interested with the story, which is a shame. There’s a lot to admire and respect with Mr. Turner. Timothy Spall’s commanding leading performance was a grand accomplishment. The lavish cinematography begs for a big screen viewing as does the stunning production design and fancy costumes. However, the taut and dense screenplay didn’t grasp me like these typical pedigree movies do. I was also caught of guard with the amount of sex in Mr. Turner which neither enhanced nor distracted from the movie.

From Secrets & Lies to Another Year, I respect Mike Leigh as a talented and well-versed filmmaker. He elevates the ordinary human interactions into extraordinary movie magic. His latest was one of my most anticipated moves from 2014. With regrets, the art house illustration of the painter British painter J.M.W. Turner in Mr. Turner is the cinematic equivalent to a beautiful painting that you stare at for a while. It looks great but you aren’t truly captivated by it as you are impressed.

I really shouldn’t encourage sequels to an industry that churns them out like butter, but I would love to see Timothy Spall reprise his role as Winston Churchill from Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech. He was tremendous in that performance and a Churchill bio-pic would be interesting to watch. If so, please bring in Collin Firth to reprise his stuttering king role to make things intriguing from an audience engagement standpoint. Make that happen, Weinstein Company.

Mr. Turner is a fine movie. My reaction to it reminded me of watching The Theory of Everything. I wanted a movie about the craft and gifts of the person portrayed on screen. Like Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, the talent of J.M.W. Turner is brushed to the side to focus on his love and relational life. Audiences deserved better. I find disconnect between the critics review and audience reviews online to be fascinating. It makes sense that my opinion falls somewhere in between the critic and the viewer.

I rate Mr. Turner a 7 out of 10.