Some
of J.M.W. Turner’s most famous subjects include Hannibal traversing the Alps
and a study of sea-monsters (or perhaps just fish, as the Tate prosaically
insists), but he is best known for the maritime scenes that are now considered
an early bridge to Impressionism. He was widely celebrated in his own lifetime,
yet popular and critical opinion varied considerably, especially in his
twilight years. Mike Leigh and his frequent ensemble player Timothy Spall
lovingly paint a portrait of the artist’s irascibility in Mr. Turner (trailer
here), which
screens as a Main Slate selection of the 52nd New York Film Festival.
By
the late 1820s, Turner was a recognized master, who could get away with
considerable eccentricities during the Royal Academy of Arts’ annual
exhibitions. Despite a brief affair yielding two illegitimate daughters he had
no use for, Turner was not much of a ladies’ man. He lived a bachelor life with
his doting father, up until the senior Turner’s death, occasionally exploiting
the unrequited affections of their housekeeper, Hannah Danby, the niece of his former
mistress.
However,
a halting romantic relationship slowly develops between Turner and Mrs. Booth,
the twice widowed proprietress of a lodging-house in Margate, the coastal
village that inspired many of Turner’s paintings. They find some late-life happiness
secretly cohabitating, even while Turner struggles with his declining health
and the sleights of the jealous establishment and fickle public.
Structurally,
Mr. Turner initially seems rather
episodic, skipping somewhat haphazardly down the last two decades of Turner’s
life, but a bigger picture slowly slides into place. Granted, there is still a
lot of character development coloring in the one hundred forty-nine minute
running time, but those are usually the best parts.
J.M.W.
Turner might well be the role Spall is forever linked to, like Sir Ben Kingsley
and Gandhi. It is a virtuoso performance, but it is also great fun, especially
when Turner slyly hams it up at Academy gatherings. Inevitably, someone will
edit together a master-cut of all his grunts and guttural noises, which are
rather eloquent within the film’s dramatic context.
Marion
Bailey also takes an exquisitely sensitive and dignified turn as Mrs. Booth and
Dorothy Atkinson piles on the pathos as poor cast-aside Hanna Danby, but after the
contributions of Spall and Leigh, it is the work of cinematographer Dick Pope
that most defines Mr. Turner. At
times, the characters walk through landscapes that shimmer like Turner
canvases, bringing to mind Lech Majewski’s The Mill & the Cross.
