Mr. Turner (2014)

Mr. Turner (R)

"Carmine Curmudgeon"

Mr. Turner tells of the later years of the famous English seascape painter JMW Turner, a man already famous for his genius at capturing the play of light on the sea on canvas.  Played by grunting, rutting actor John Spall, Turner comes to life as a complicated and driven artist whose eccentricity is reflected in a purposely eccentric screenplay with fantastic photography and a meandering run time.  Mr. Turner is certainly not everyone's cup of tea.

Going through his latter years, impacted by the loss of his father, becoming more and more reviled by the general public due to his evolving aesthetic (surreal and impressionistic, modern art before its time), Mr. Turner (the movie) is not your usual biographical film.  It explains nearly nothing, leaves its audience to either know the backstory or not, leaves you to pick up the pieces from scraps of dialogue and hints of character.  It's a challenging and long film, but as in most fiction a character is formed in the viewer's mind that is stronger than any exposition, and as gross or vulgar you may find Turner he is also as warm and compassionate sketch of a human.  While incomplete as a biography, it none the less is entirely complete picture of a man, his wants and what drives him.  Lashing himself to a mast to get a better look at a snow storm at sea, fiddling with the maid, sketching a prostitute, grieving the loss of his father, Turner is as complete a character study as is humanly possible.  The blemishes and wrinkles of his life are on full display, and yet so is his unique English ways, his pride, his sorrows and artistic triumphs.  Mr. Turner is not painted with broad strokes, but tiny flicks of the wrist that glorify and obfuscate the canvas of his life in a complicated and rich manner, in whom many will see the flawed nature and beauty of man mirrored as upon a calm lake at morning time.

7 Hog Jowls and History out of 10 (GOOD)