Review of Mr. Turner (2014) by Bill M — 19 Jan 2015

WIKIPEDIA OVER LEIGH IN A KNOCKOUT.

SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers pretty much end to end, in fact, so proceed at your own risk. Now then, the first thing to note about this long, boring and fre-quently repulsive movie is the title: MR. TURNER. Two words--got it? [Joseph Mallord William] Turner was a very great artist, and the pity is that his works are slighted in this movie, which is not about art but about Mr.-the person. Like many another genius, he was a very unsatisfactory man, gruff, rude and apparently friendless. With an older widow he sired two daughters but more or less abandoned her and them. He has violent (if apparently welcome) sex in an ugly scene with his cipher of a housekeeper, who (if only via an increasingly hideous skin disease), shows more development than he does. Late in life espe-cially, people don't change, but since there is no storyline, why go on for two-and-a-half hours with this? Timothy Spall is excellent as Turner, and he has the kind of teeth that have won British dentistry its world-wide reputation, but for lack of a storyline we see (and hear!) far too much of him. His lines swing like a pendulum from orotund Victorian rhetoric (for colleagues and clients) and grunts and groans (for most everyone else). Scenes come and go, leading no-where. The brilliant Scottish polymath Mary Somerville drops by to show Turner how a prism makes a rainbow--then disappears. His mistress comes and goes, in high dudgeon, twice. His colleagues? There's a wee hint (and no more) of dislike for John Constable and three scenes(!) with a mediocrity who borrows from him. The sole development involves his Margate landlady, Sophia Booth (delightfully played by Marion Bailey), whom he eventually loves and lives with. But why the obsessive secrecy, telling her first that he's "Mr. Mallard" and later masquerading as "Mr. Booth" until death does them part? No hint. Direc-tor Leigh is didactic: Turner sees a train; next thing you know, he's painted "Rain, Speed and Steam." By chance he see the Temeraire being towed away; a pal suggests it might make a painting, and . . . presto! "The Fighting Temeraire." Then he's lashed to the mast of a ship in a storm . . Get the picture? So did Turner. The scenery that inspired him is splendidly filmed; his paintings are not. To see his art, go to Wikipedia's Tuner entry, which has plenty, and links to much more. Then, having saved the price of a ticket, make a small do-nation (say, half the ticket price) to Wikipedia, and be grateful for small flavors. (Such as the appearance, way down in the cast, of the name Niall Buggy.).