Mr. Turner: Capsule Movie Review
Continuing in a series of reviews by Ron Wells of recent film that come from an examination and dramatization of the biographies of “real” people, we shift now from the accomplishments of mathematicians and scientists like Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, to a film about the painter J.M.W. Turner starring Timothy Spall who won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. This film is rated R for some sexual content.
Director Mike Leigh never runs away from the complexities and difficulties of the lives of people, nor the realities of those same people. This is never more apparent than in his latest film Mr. Turner (official website here) about the British artist, J.M.W. Turner which never veers from the harshness (nor occasional kindness) of Turner’s personality and life, nor the divine beauty of his art.
In a year filled with great acting performances, there will be none better than Timothy Spall as the eternally scowling, grunting, and snorting Mr. Turner whose painting of seascapes, and especially landscapes, plus the way he used light, was far ahead of its time.
An extremely complex portrait of the artist in his middle and later years, this is an exquisite film for anyone who is interested in art or the artist who is behind the work and whose last words were, “The sun is gone.”
For more about Mr Turner, check out the wikipedia page.
