Mr. Turner

Review by Milan Paurich

MR. TURNER isn’t the most ingratiating movie Mike Leigh has ever directed. In that sense, it’s a lot like the curmudgeonly true-life figure, 19th century British landscape painter J.M.W. Turner, who gives the film its title. It’s as far removed from the chronicles of contemporary middle-class life Leigh normally specializes in (LIFE IS SWEET, ANOTHER YEAR, SECRETS AND LIES) as a movie can be. Yet, like Leigh’s equally splendid Gilbert and Sullivan biopic, 1999’s TOPSY TURVY, it’s another Leigh masterwork.