Review of Mr. Turner (2014) by Claudette A — 26 Apr 2015

Mr. Turner is an extremely demanding piece of art house entertainment that is not a cup of tea for everyone. Unbearably slow-paced, with no direction of the story-telling this is an overlong and almost boring, elegiac biopic about one of Britains' finest Romanticists.

Mike Leigh's movie is definitely not one that everyone could watch until the end. It demands tremendous efforts to follow what could not be followed: the lack of structure and story. Amidst Turner's landscape paintings and example of early abstract art, the story reveals the final years of a strange person who lived and abused his servant, who had a second life with another lady and never restrained from mocking and shocking his colleagues at the Royal Academy of Arts. All of this seems quite intriguing, especially having the formidable Timothy Spall as Turner, but these reasons to enjoy the movie are mixed with all the lights of Turner's paintings and left to dry out on his canvases.

If you are not up for a challenging, slow and boring movie, then you'd better not even think of seeing Mr. Turner. However, if you decide to test yourself and give it a try, you might find something specific to enjoy. It could be the acting, the cinematography, the costumes or like in my case the beauty of the English language. If you find something like this in Mr.Turner you may actually be mildly satisfied in the end of the movie.