Mr Turner

England   Timothy Spall   d/ Mike Leigh

Sumptuous treatment of the life, time and personality of JMW Turner - the barber's son who became one of England's greatest painters in the 19th century.

Spall embodied the role, affecting a hunched-over waddle, relying mainly on grunts and weird throat noises for communicating whilst still projecting a sensitive, enigmatic character. Some of the landscape shots were breathtaking...in particular the Dover cliffs and an early steam engine train laboring up a hill.

Nothing very imaginative here but my interest never flagged in spite of the long running time. Another cap feather for Leigh, Britain's finest filmmaker.

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