Mike Leigh's late-career fascination with the turning of the seasons and corporeal decline is illustrated with great humour and poetry in Mr. Turner, based on the life and death of England's iconic painter of light. Okay, that probably doesn't scream a great time at the movies, but Leigh has proven to be a reliable navigator through even the most unpleasant of subjects. Mr. Turner, despite its deeply flawed, mortal coil-circling hero, is frothy and funny when it needs to be, looks gorgeous, and is anchored by some of 2014's finest performances. As far as biopics go, this picturesque beauty is on the better end of the spectrum.
Timothy Spall plays J.M.W. Turner here, graduating from the ranks of supporting character actor to leading man (in fairness, to portray a figure with character actor good looks). He brings to the role rascally charm and indomitable ferocity, communicating almost solely with grunts and cutting through the pomposity of the period-speak from those around him. Set over 25 years, it begins with Turner the toast of 19th century England's art scene, revered as much for his landscapes of ships battling the elements at sea as his anarchic spirit. As the years pass, and Turner's mop of straw hair thins from the inside out, he sees the tide turn, his art fall out of favour, and his name become a punchline, well before later generations would venerate him once more.
Leigh contrasts scenes of Turner's increasingly frail body failing on him with sequences in which his style is declared pass ; the despairingly-human juxtaposition making his reputation's decay seem all-too familiar. He's not the only one having a rough time of it: Turner's heartbroken housekeeper Hannah Danby (Dorothy Atkinson) endures the indignity of being ignored for decades at a time, her psoriasis seemingly exploding into full-blown leprosy. The only one spared from the ravages of time is Turner's lover Sophia Booth (Marion Bailey) a chipper widow who at first offers the artist an escape from the insufferable aristocracy, only to become his dearest companion as he nears expiry.
Cinematographer Dick Pope, one of Leigh's longest colleagues, does career-best work in Mr. Turner, photographing each frame as if it were a watercolour itself (allowing for sunlight to splash across the canvas to replicate Turner's intricately-composed visual anarchy). It complements those on screen. Spall was awarded Cannes' Best Actor prize for his troubles, a vindication of his lifetime's work and this, his crowning achievement. Atkinson and Bailey are equally powerful foils. To further the point that there are no small parts in Mike Leigh movies, Joshua McGuire is hilarious as snivelling, lisping critic John Ruskin, while Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen leave indelible impressions in their short appearances. The star of every Mike Leigh joint, however, is Mike Leigh; the collaborative auteur who thrives on improvisation and actorly-inspiration, but still builds dense, cinematically-realised worlds for his stars to play in. It no longer matters what his films are about; they are a promise: a Mike Leigh production is something to be seen.
Mr. Turner arrives in Australian cinemas December 26, 2014.
4/5
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Mike Leigh's late-career fascination with the turning of the seasons and corporeal decline is illustrated with great humour and poetry in Mr. Turner, based on the life and death of England's iconic painter of light. Okay, that probably doesn't scream a great time at the movies, but Leigh has proven to be a reliable navigator through even the most unpleasant of subjects. Mr. Turner, despite its deeply flawed, mortal coil-circling hero, is frothy and funny when it needs to be, looks gorgeous, and is anchored by some of 2014's finest performances. As far as biopics go, this picturesque beauty is on the better end of the spectrum.
