Throughout
the two-and-a-half hour running-time of Mr.
Turner, I don’t believe I ever fully grasped the point of Mike Leigh’s
biography, though I found myself captivated by each individual sequence. All of
the individual elements are something to marvel, from the magnificent
cinematography to Timothy Spall’s incredibly dedicated performance, despite
coherence in theme and direction missing from the overall experience. If a
realistic period film about a reclusive artist was all Leigh was attempting to
achieve, he was extremely successful, though part of me longed to understand
the title character rather than just experience him.
Rather than a
straightforward biopic, Mr. Turner is
a collection of events and moments from the last 25 years of the artist’s life.
We don’t see how J.M.W. Turner (Spall) got to his place of professional
prestige, aren’t told the details about his personal life, who he is married to
as opposed to simply served by, or why he hides behind pseudonyms. His family
connections are left mostly unexplained aside from the close relationship he
has with his father (Paul Jesson), until death parts them. We watch the
petulant man in his routine of painting and the business behind this work,
taking time occasionally to impulsively grope whatever woman happens to be
nearest. The outward performance by Spall is so convincingly dedicated that one
could read between the lines of the screenplay to find answers to this
behavior, though Leigh seems unwilling to make this an easy task. The end
result is not dissimilar to experiencing art in a museum; the audience is
permitted to marvel without being allowed to get close enough to see intent
beneath the brush strokes.
Part of the
struggle with Leigh’s screenplay is the unwillingness to dumb things down
enough to give any exposition for the narrative. We jump into Turner’s life
without any understanding of who the people are in his life, forced to scrap
together tidbits from brief encounters and the series of moments and/or events
that make up the 150-minute running-time. We see Turner at work briefly, though
these are more often instances for Dick Pope’s Academy Award-nominated
cinematography to shine, showing what the subject of his paintings might have
looked like during the process of artistic creation. There are small encounters
that also expose the man’s difficulty in social situations, whether in the
mistreatment of his staff or the lending of money to a fellow artist. One of
the film’s more engaging subplots shows an affair the artist has with an
elderly woman he often rents a room from while working on his maritime
paintings.
This is one of
those films which seems to cause a division between critics and paying audience
members, while I find myself falling somewhere in the middle. I see the points
of each side as valid; although I don’t agree that Mr. Turner is dull, I did find the approach to the material far
more intellectually satisfying than emotionally. The excellence with which the
technical aspects of the story were accomplished led me to wish that the
filmmaker had been a bit less elitist with his approach. It feels like a film
made only for those already familiar with the life and work of Turner,
simultaneously turning its nose up to all of those hoping to be exposed to this
material through the biopic. I am not surprised critics are falling over
themselves praising this film, because they seem to love films which make them
feel like a part of some elitist group that understands what others are
ill-equipped to dissect. This is why every Terrence Malick film will garner at
least a few rave reviews, and even seems to be the subject of a few ironic
sequences of snobby art discussion within Mr.
Turner. With that being said, I also believe that Timothy Spall gave the best
film performance of last year, regardless of the politics and preferences of
the Academy towards actors playing handicapped, losing weight, or comeback
performances.
The Blu-ray
release offers an exclusive featurette about the cinematography of Mr. Turner, which is a highlight of both
the film and the high definition disc. Despite my disappointment in aspects of
the narrative, the cinematography is nothing short of spectacular and likely
the best non effects-driven film to be released on Blu-ray from last year. The
additional extras include a commentary track with director Mike Leigh, an
additional featurette, and a handful of deleted scenes.
Entertainment Value:
7/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8/10
Historical
Significance: 7.5/10
Special Features: 7/10
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