Review of Mr. Turner (2014) by Eric A — 01 Jan 2015

I never saw a more compelling, yet abrasive character in my life. Timothy Spalling brings to the screen an animalistic man. You see the beast within the father and how it was passed on to the son. I was not quite sure if he would be diagnosed with Asperger syndrome if he lived today.

You see him grunt and groan to his father, then his father grunts back in similar rhythms. In one scene you see the father prepare a boar's head for dinner by shaving it and the next frame you see his son being shaven in a similar fashion by his father.

In either case, in the story of the artist's life J.M.W. Turner compels you to reach out to understand. That is indeed what other characters do throughout the movie. The artist's mindset overall is examined as well.

The intelligentsia in the upper classes have complicated redundant thoughts than the masses. At one point, Queen Victoria looks at Turner's work as brazen & classless. Turner appears to be at once aristocracy & the same time a working class man.

Mr. Spalling's performance is a wonder and I did like the performance, yet I was left wanting. I did not quite sympathize with the man until he was at his most fragile point. The actresses in the piece actually were of extreme interest and certainly their performances assisted with the fascination of Turner.

Dorothy Atkinson as the shabby, loyal servant in the Turner household showed love in her eyes even though at times she is used as a mere, unorthodox sex object. You want to examine her fascination with the man who will grope her like a grapefruit in the supermarket .

.how can this be. She is extremely complex and her trajectory equally devastating. Marion Bailey as Mrs. Booth performed beautifully for she somehow knew how to reach Turner's internal world to make him more comfortable.

A touching performance. This film also examines art on a scientific level and Turner's fascination with science in nature as it effects his images. The paintings are crafted in real life as he sits in the atmosphere; the cinematography is breathtaking.

You watch steam morph in the air and realize the nature of what we see. I should probably rate this higher, but I feel the screenplay meanders a bit. And still I would not completely understand Turner.

..nor perhaps understand why he associated with either woman as he did. And thus you leave wanting to read more about him...and probably learn more about this difficult conundrum of a man.