OVP: Mr. Turner (2014)

Film: Mr. Turner (2014)
Stars: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, Ruth Sheen
Director: Mike Leigh
Oscar History: 4 nominations (Best Cinematography, Score, Costume, and Art Direction)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

About once a year, I usually throw a caveat to the people I recommend movies to about them seeing a film on the big-screen.  The reality is that most films are better on a big screen.  The movies are created to be seen there first-and-foremost, it's more immersive and usually better quality (depending on the projectionist), and it's certainly less distracting than being at home.  Unless you're sneaking onto your cell phone or controlling your screaming children (in which case, please don't go to the movie theater), you don't get distracted by texts or the pause button.

For all of these reasons, therefore, it goes without saying that a film should be seen on the big screen if that's an option.  However, occasionally it's worth pointing out.  Usually this is driven by either visual effects (Avatar, Life of Pi) or Cinematography (The Tree of Life, The New World, To the Wonder...basically anything Terrence Malick) or perhaps both (Gravity).  This year, I implore you that if it's in a theater near you, you need to make a point to see Mr. Turner on the big screen.  Few films in recent years have made me gape in awe in the same way as this film, which loses a lot of its majesty the smaller the screen you project it upon.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is the story of JMW Turner (Spall), a legendary painter and artist who dominated the 19th Century English art scene.  The film takes place toward the latter half of his life, which is a refreshing change of pace for those of us who are sick-to-death of "come-from-nothing, suddenly-a-genius" biopics.  The entire film Turner is at the very least established, even if his departure from traditional form (Turner was one of the earliest adapters of abstract art) eventually received its fair share of clucks from the London elite.  The movie follows Turner and his relationships with three specific individuals: his father (Jesson), his housekeeper/mistress (Atkinson), and Mrs. Booth (Bailey), a landlady who eventually becomes his romantic companion.

Like all Mike Leigh films, the movie is filled with wonderful little touches in regard to the acting.  Because of the (admittedly unkind and slightly narcissistic) way that Leigh preps his actors (only giving them a character description, with little indication as to how large their part will be), we get a wonderful group of actors in supporting parts, and people like Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen have more fully-formed characters that feel like they exist off-screen.  In the lead role, Timothy Spall is pretty much every adjective that you could think of: larger-than-life, minimalist, bloated, and delicate all at once.  The film is long (clocking in at 2.5 hours) and he's in nearly every scene, so it's not like he doesn't get a gigantic acting showcase (there's a reason this won at Cannes).  I do find that he occasionally leans too fully into the crutches of his role (Turner being a large, crude, and sexually-dominant personality), but the sprier moments when he lets Turner's genius shine (like when he goes around critiquing all of the other Royal Academy painters) are much stronger and worthy of praise, though not quite accolades in my opinion.

The film's messaging is interesting, but that's true of every Mike Leigh movie.  I've never been 100% certain how he does it, but you're never entirely sure whose story you've just seen until you actually watch the movie in full.  This was used to pitch perfection in Another Year, my favorite in his filmography, but Mr. Turner certainly has those aspects, particularly when we see the ways that the two women in his life react to his eventual death.  Mrs. Booth recalls his love and adoration, fond memories of not just her devotion to him and his genius, but also the happiness that they created together.  In the inverse, we find his housekeeper weeping, partially out of bereavement but also out of revelation, knowing that her entire life was spent devoted to a man who cared little for her, and certainly not of her personage.  No one in modern cinema crafts loneliness as well as Mike Leigh, and he does that in a sly and heartbreaking way by juxtaposing these two women who, on paper, occupy very similar roles within Turner's life.

The film unfolds with frequent allusions to Turner's paintings, though you don't need an Art History degree to appreciate the way that cinematographer Dick Pope re-creates iconic works like The Fighting Temeraire.  The reality is that this, even more so than Leigh's typically affecting plotting and the strong ensemble work, is the reason to buy the ticket.  I audibly said "wow" at least a half dozen times, and the entire film is just a master class in light and creation.  Though you can occasionally see the CGI aiding Pope's work (including in the The Fighting Temeraire sequence), by-and-large this is a film that needs natural light to work, and as a result we get some of the finest cinematography of the season.  Though Roger Deakins is always sublime and Emmanuel Lubezki's tricky work in Birdman is exceptional, Pope's going to be a hard person to beat when we get to the OVP for this film, provided he gets nominated (I can imagine literally every person who sees the movie putting down his name on their ballot).

We'll end it there for now (though the comments section is always there for discussion), though I am confident that Dick Pope's cinematography will be revisited when I have finished up the Oscar-nominated films of 2014.  Until then, however, what are your thoughts on this film?  Did you sign on for Timothy Spall's giant work in the title role, or were you a bit more apprehensive?  Do you frequently find yourself perplexed by the way that Mike Leigh can tell a story whose protagonist you can't always identify?  And what are your thoughts on the brilliance of Dick Pope?  Share by the clicking the button below!