Telluride at Dartmouth: "Mr. Turner"
A richly and immediately enjoyable biopic of the artist J.M.W. Turner by director Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky).
Master filmmaker Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky) has long been fascinated by J.M.W. Turner, the visionary, radical mid-19th century British painter, known for his eccentricity and off-putting intensity. Timothy Spall, who won Cannes’ Best Actor prize for this role he seems born to play, is alternately funny and frightening as he works towards artistic immortality. And as one would hope for an artist’s biopic, the cinematography is as visually stunning as Turner’s paintings. Richly and immediately enjoyable, Mr. Turner brings tiny details of Victorian England to vivid life, combining domestic intimacy with an epic sweep. Leigh avoids either idealizing or disparaging Turner, instead displaying the man in the breadth of his vulgar, obsessive tragicomic humanity. (UK, 2014, 149m) Courtesy of Sony Classics
