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Mr. Turner
| Released |
31 October 2014 |
| Director |
Mike Leigh |
Starring
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Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Karl Johnson, Ruth Sheen, Sandy Foster, Amy Dawson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, Richard Bremmer |
| Writer(s) |
Mike Leigh |
| Producer(s) |
Georgina Lowe |
| Origin |
United Kingdom |
| Running Time |
150 minutes |
| Genre |
Biography, drama, history |
| Rating |
12A |
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A brush with genius.
In terms of his work alone, J.M.W. Turner is a deeply intriguing proposition. Compared with his contemporaries such as Constable, Turner was a man out of time, his work foreshadowing that of the Impressionist movement and abstract art. His land and seascapes teem with energy and colour, sometimes almost completely disregarding form in order to portray the tumultuous majesty of nature. But what of the man himself? Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner offers us a portrait of the artist as an old man, following the personal and professional upheavals of his final years.
The resulting portrait is of a man who has an insatiable hunger for inspiration and an unconquerable compulsion to create. He is fascinated by the scientific world, simultaneously drawn to and apprehensive of its influence. It is this curiosity for life and uncontrollable artistic urge that fascinates Leigh. The film shows us a man caught between the old establishment and the thrust of modernity - who visits and reveres the work of the old masters, while capturing on canvas the thundering steel and smoke of the new technologies of the Victorian era.
Spall’s performance perfectly captures these contrasting traits. His Turner is not an elegant man, or indeed a very likable one, yet he can be charming and witty, equally at home amongst the high echelons of the academy and the lowbrow of the music hall. He rarely speaks, for the most part expressing himself via a whole dictionary’s worth of grunts, while around him the script crackles with Dickensian earthiness. Paul Jesson as Turner’s father has warmth and wit, while Dorothy Atkinson is a delightful oddity as housekeeper Hannah. As befits a film about high art, the cinematography of Dick Pope is stunning - quoting the glorious colour of Turner’s work but with pin-sharp clarity and a painterly eye for framing.
Despite the high calibre of its components though, I found Mr. Turner easier to admire than to love. It has none of the kinetic energy with which Turner creates his work, instead the pacing is deliberately measured and I fear will be too slow for many. Mike Leigh’s films usually have an easy immediacy but here his style is a little more formal. Mr. Turner suffers a little from this approach, but there is still enough emotion and humour within the performances to make it a rewarding watch overall.
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Linda O’Brien |
