Mr. Turner Review
RYAN: This is a new biopic about impressionist painter JMW Turner, strategically released last year for some awards buzz – it has four Oscar noms (cinematography, costumes, score, production design) – and is rolling out around the country now.
CAROLINE: It’s by writer/director Mike Leigh whom I like. How is his latest?
RYAN: It’s good. It’s long, two and a half hours and slow at times but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
CAROLINE: I imagine the period piece is very strong, considering all the design recognition it’s getting?
RYAN: Absolutely. It’s really astonishing to look at. The cinematography is really breathtaking at times, fitting for a movie about landscapes and art. It really helps tell the story and actually is a part of the story more-so than other, general movies. Many of the shots could be postcards and there was one, in particular that I actually thought was a painting until the camera started to move, revealing, it was an actual setting. I think I gasped in that moment.
CAROLINE: Wow that’s cool. Bummer about the length though.
RYAN: Yeah Leigh definitely could have tightened it up a bit, but that often happens with directors who have all that control… hard to real them in.
CAROLINE: How’s the cast?
RYAN: The only recognizable person is leading actor Timothy Spall, who I’ve never really seen before as a leading man, but love his work as character actor in the Harry Potter movies, Enchanted, Sweeney Todd, etc… He’s outstanding in this and has received much acclaim. But he does a lot of grunting in the movie that I found a bit annoying toward the end.
CAROLINE: (laughs) Grunt-acting.
RYAN: The score didn’t really stand out to me so I’m surprised by that nomination, in particular.
CAROLINE: Always interesting how the Academy goes.
RYAN: As for the cinematography, they take full advantage of the film as canvas – there are a lot of wide shots that sometimes linger longer than I liked. And while the script is good, there was one section where suddenly everyone started to sound like they were in a Shakespeare play and I could barely follow what was happening, but then it went back to normal.
CAROLINE: How odd!
RYAN: I enjoyed this movie as an awards DVD screener at home – and I imagine it would be beautiful to see on the big screen but it’s not a must see in the theater.
Matt January 23, 2015
at the bottom of the rent list it goes!!!!