Mr. Turner

An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.

Director:

Mike Leigh

Writer:

Mike Leigh (screenplay)

Stars:

Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson |  

Storyline

Mr. Turner 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.

User Reviews

Let's start with the good - it's beautifully shot and acted. That's it. The film lacks any element of storyline. It begins with a shot of Turner in Holland. But why? We're never told. He goes to Margate to paint. But why there instead of some other part of Britain? We're never told. He gets tied to the mast of a ship in a storm. But that's almost a stand-alone scene. His housekeeper has some sort of progressive disease but we're never told what it is or why she had it. I believe that Turner had a fairly contentious relationship with Constable but all we get here is a very brief scene in which Constable walks out in response to what he considers to be a slight on the part of Turner. If the relationship was as acrimonious as I believe it's reported to have been, couldn't Mike Leigh have used this to greater effect?

Overall the film looks as if somebody has been through a biography of Turner, used a highlighter pen to pick out important episodes and they've been stitched together as a complete piece. As a result, the movie is nothing more than a series of largely disjointed vignettes and represents 3 hours in a cinema to no good effect.