Mr. Turner: An Artistic Triumph

Timothy Spall has been picking up numerous awards for his performance as 19th-century English painter JMW Turner. Writer-director Mike Leigh has similarly received widespread kudos for this remarkable film. However, come February, the one person I really hope wins an Oscar for Mr. Turner is cinematographer Dick Pope.

Watching Mr. Turner is like spending two and half hours in an art museum. There are beautiful paintings on display in the movie, but each frame of the film feels like a painting itself. There are multiple scenes where at first you think you're looking at some artwork but then suddenly a cloud scuds by or a wave ripples across the water and you realize that you're just looking at a gorgeous landscape captured through a cinematographer's extremely skilled lens. 

The movie follows the latter years of Turner's life. He is an odd man with incredible talent but a disastrous personal life. He lives with his beloved father and doting housekeeper, painting up a storm and lording it over less successful painters at the Royal Academy. He is one of those rare artists who is relatively well-appreciated in his lifetime (a young John Ruskin shows up as one of Turner's fervent admirers) and he doesn't seem to be a dreadfully tortured soul. 

Over the course of the movie, Turner goes through some personal upheavals and unwelcome criticism of his techniques and artistry. By and large, this is not a movie that chronicles anything extraordinary and dramatic about his personal life. It is really a mood piece that completely steeps you in the period. The dialogue is spot-on and while there are dramatic moments, I was mostly impressed by the quieter scenes, like when a group of well-bred people sit around discussing gooseberries for lack of a less contentious topic. It is a meticulously observed world, both visually and psychologically, and it is one of the year's most remarkable cinematic feats. 

Mr. Turner fully deserves all the critical acclaim and it will certainly be in contention for several awards in the coming months. Timothy Spall turns in a pitch-perfect performance (after all, the man spent two years learning how to paint just for this movie) but the true star is the breathtaking cinematography. In this age of 3D spectacle and green screen, it is wondrous to behold such natural beauty captured on film. I'm sure each scene underwent a great deal of filtering and color grading to achieve exactly the right look: the filmmakers have put as much artistry into making this movie as JMW Turner put into his paintings. The result is a true masterpiece that will dazzle you in the cinema and then encourage you to head to a museum.