Butler's Cinema Scene

Timothy Spall in “Mr. Turner”

“MR. TURNER”  My rating: B+

150 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Though Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner” centers on the great English painter J.M.W. Turner, it isn’t really a conventional biography of an artist.

Nor does it offer much insight into the process of painting. Only rarely do we see Turner — brilliantly portrayed by Timothy Spall — with a brush in his hand.

And there’s no plot to speak of…not all that unusual when you consider that Leigh makes his movies after months of collaborative improvisation with his players.

Best to think of “Mr. Turner” as a time machine, a vehicle for transporting us to another era and so completely capturing the feel of the place that you’d swear you can smell the oil paint and the sea air.

The film concentrates on the last years in Turner’s life.  By this time (from the late 1840s to his death in 1851), Turner has been widely recognized as one of the great artists of the day. He specializes in seascapes, but his style is so radically impressionistic as to border on the abstract. His work alienates many (there’s a scene of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert viewing a Turner canvas and concluding that the artist must be going blind or mad), yet among his fellow artists he is regarded as a genius.

Genius he may be.  As a human being, this Turner leaves something to be desired.

Jowly and potbellied, moving through life’s obstacles with a sneer, Spall’s Turner knows he’s brilliant and sees little reason to pretend otherwise. Like many a genius before and since, he assumes that his accomplishments have earned him the right to behave any damn way he pleases.

He is contemptuous of his estranged mistress (Ruth Sheen) and her two grown daughters (at least one of whom is believed to be Turner’s). He engages in brusque, grunting sex with his housekeeper, a withered, possibly halfwitted woman (Dorothy Atkinson) who  adores him.

In  dealing with patrons he is civil but condescending.  He tolerates  his fellow artists in relationships that range from subdued friendship to patronizing superciliousness. He seems to take perverse pleasure in hearing the complaints of Benjamin Hayden (Martin Savage), a debt-ridden painter with one sad story after another. And Turner enjoys toying with his closest competitor, John Constable (James Fleet), impishly tweaking that high-strung fellow’s delicate sensibilities.

He is a bull shouldering his way through the china shop of life. How odd, then, that Turner’s relationship with his aging father (Paul Jesson) is astonishingly tender.  The old man dotes on his brilliant boy, sharpens his pencils and mixes his paints, keeps his studio and serves as art agent for visiting dignitaries in the market for something to hang on the wall. They share jokes, hug…there’s genuine love there.

Late in life Turner meets and takes up with a widow lady (Marion Booth) in whose seaside rooming house he stays while on a sketching expedition. By this time his father is dead, and the artist appears utterly enamored of this gentle, plump woman who recognizes his genius (apparently the prerequisite for any relationship with the artist) and happily fulfills his every bodily and emotional need.

Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway (1844)

“Mr. Turner’s” lack of conventional plotting will be a challenge for many viewers.  But those who can immerse themselves in the moment — sinking into the fabulous tactile atmosphere generated by Suzie Davies’ production design, Dan Taylor’s art direction, Charlotte Watts’ sets, Jacquiline Durran’s costumes and especially Dick Pope’s jaw-droppingly beautiful cinematography — will discover an overwhelming sensory experience.

| Robert W. Butler