Mr Turner
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson
150 mins; Class 12;
KRS Releasing Ltd

Director Mike Leigh’s latest oeuvre opens with a picture-perfect shot of a windmill standing majestically against a calm, idyllic sunset.

A little further away, a man of rather large gait sketches furiously, concentration evident in his furrowed brow and pursed lips.

With the aid of his pencil he commits the scene in front of him to paper, for eventual resurrection onto canvas.

For this is J.M.W. Turner (Timothy Spall), the great British painter whose last 25 years or so are skilfully captured in this intense biopic from acclaimed director Mike Leigh.

An acclaimed artist since a very young age, Joseph Mallord William Turner is in his 50s and already famous when he is profoundly affected by the death of his father who also served as his loyal assistant.

Timothy Spall adds depth to every layer of Turner’s complex character

Despite his pain, Turner continues to paint unabated as he is looked after by his long-suffering housekeeper Hannah (Dorothy Atkinson) and nagged by his mistress Sarah Danby (Ruth Sheen) with whom he has two daughters whom he largely ignores.

Turner spends most of the time when he is not painting at the Royal Academy of Arts, where he is admired and reviled in equal measure.

He eventually secretly sets up home with a gentle widow, Mrs Booth (Marion Bailey) and finds something akin to domestic bliss, even as he goes through a period of mortification as his work starts to come under attack.

With Mr Turner, Leigh has managed to avoid the pitfalls often associated with biopics, succeeding in the film’s two-and-a-half hours in painting a complete portrait of the artist and his brilliance, warts and all, to the audience.

For like most geniuses, Turner had his share of personality problems and in a towering performance, Timothy Spall captures each one with deceptive ease.

There are the eccentricities, rudeness, misanthropy and more. A frequent collaborator of Leigh, Spall adds depth to every layer of Turner’s complex character, subtle changes evident in the portrayal of the obvious deep affection towards his father; the dismissive attitude towards his mistress (the formidable Sheen) and her daughters or the callous treatment of loyal housekeeper Hannah (played with such pathos by Atkinson, she will break your heart at the end of the movie).

And yet, beneath that tough exterior lay a compassionate and generous human being, brought out in his relationship with Mrs Booth, which did not often enough break the surface.

And yet, the passion that ignited his talent knew no bounds, the ‘master of light’ creating numerous masterpieces with landscapes, architecture, nature and a penchant for storms (on one memorable occasion tying himself to the mast of a ship during a particularly violent bout of weather) among his many inspirations.

In Leigh’s fluent script and Spall’s masterful performance, this character breaks through.

Key also to the success of the film is director of photography Dick Pope, another long-term collaborator of Leigh’s, whose glorious cinematography has created images that illustrate with brilliant clarity why Turner was inspired to paint as he did, making you at times to want to press an imaginary ‘pause’ button to take it all in.