In Mr. Turner, probably the least known quadruple Oscar nominee at this past year’s awards (all technical: Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score and Best Production Design), Mike Leigh returns to the British history of Topsy Turvy. As played by Timothy Spall in another remarkable performance (probably his best, but such a distinction feels like splitting hairs), J.M.W. Turner is a caring curmudgeon, grunting and growling but ultimately deeply connecting with a chosen few like his father, William (Paul Jesson), and his autumn love, Sophia Booth (Marion Bailey). To others, he was a well-known painter of land and seascapes.
Leigh has left behind his working class heroes and here focuses on English Romanticism. Sequences highlighting England’s community of artists fascinate, once one becomes familiar with the players; John Constable pops by to be ridiculed. The humor, when present, is so dry as to be brittle. Leigh and his cinematographer, Academy Award nominee Dick Pope, capture images like Turner’s own masterpieces.
A more beautiful film is hard to imagine, yet Mr. Turner, at nearly two and a half hours, is a film that feels more constructed for critical praise than for audience applause. Leigh certainly has produced more entertaining films, and his choice of subject, an artist unfamiliar to many, may be a tough sell for a historical biography. Still, patience is rewarded by Spall’s grand performance and Leigh’s artistic eye.
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