Mr. Turner is a 2014 biopic about the British painter J.M.W Turner, directed by Mike Leigh. Turner is portrayed by Timothy Spall.
Turner is a popular painter in the early-to-mid 1800s, but beneath his well-respected reputation lies a tortured mind. At odds with much of his family, he spends his time alone with his work except when he occasionally exploits his housekeeper, who is secretly in love with him. The film follows Turner as he travels the countryside, stirs controversy among the artistic establishment, and pursues a romance with a widow.
For his work in the film, Spall won the Best Actor award at Cannes.
This film provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Disorder: As Turner ages, he becomes ever more ill-mannered and eccentric. It's implied that he's senile by the end of the film.
- Attention Whore: Turner's antics at the Royal Academy show definite signs of this.
- Deadpan Snarker: Turner and several of his artist friends.
- Desperately Craves Affection: A likely motive for Turner's awful behavior.
- Downer Ending: Turner dies at an old age, tortured by illness and possibly insane. Both of the women in his life are left heartbroken and alone.
- Entitled Bastard: Turner, whose ego is immense and he largely goes around doing as he pleases because people make allowances for his brusqueness as they're amazed by his art.
- Genius Slob: Turner is perpetually unkempt and he doesn't care much for politeness or decorum when he works as he snarls and spits at his canvas while painting. His nails are also so large and dirtynote that others openly marvel at them.
- Giftedly Bad: Turner is an acclaimed artist but he is an atrocious public speaker who stutters and stumbles when giving a lecture at the Royal Academy of Arts.
- Gratuitous Rape: Turner randomly rapes his maid and it's never mentioned again.
- The Hero Dies: If you can call Turner a hero.
- His Own Worst Enemy: Turner's problems are all the result of his own actions; if he simply bothered to treat others better, he would be enormously more respected by everyone from his family to his fellow artists.
- Historical Domain Character: Turner, obviously, but also numerous other figures from the era. The most prominent ones include:
- Benjamin Haydon, a painter who begs Turner for a loan. Though he committed suicide during the period of the film, this isn't mentioned presumably because Turner is senile and isolated by then.
- Mary Sommerville, a natural philosopher who demonstrates her theories about the magnetizing effects of light to Turner and his father.
- John Ruskin, a prominent art critic depicted here in his youth as a pretentious, irritating and spoiled fanatic of Turner's work.
- John Jabez Edwin Mayall, an early photographer who takes Turner's picture near the end of the film and also took numerous famous portraits of real people like Karl Marx and Queen Victoria.
- John Constable, a fellow painter whom Turner antagonizes.
- Joseph Gillott, a wealthy pen manufacturer who tries to buy Turner's entire portfolio.
- Queen Victoria and Prince Albert themselves, who deride Turner's increasingly abstract work.
- Insufferable Genius: Turner, though he often manages to hide it.
- Jerkass: Perhaps Turner's defining trait.
- Kick the Dog: Everything Turner does to his housekeeper, Danby.
- Manchild: Turner, especially when we see him in the Royal Academy.
- Mean Boss: Turner, towards Hannah Danby. He ignores her until he needs something and expects her to fulfill his every whim without question, even if it's sexual in nature.
- Morality Pet: Turner is shown to be genuinely loving toward his father and Mrs. Booth, and has a genuine friendship with Mary Sommerville, respecting her accomplishments as a natural philosopher in a time when women had little opportunity in science.
- Parental Neglect: Turner refuses to admit that he's fathered two daughters and pointedly ignores them whenever their mother brings them along to demand financial support.
- Pet the Dog: On the other hand, Turner seems genuinely loving toward Sophia Booth. He also impulsively gives Haydon a handout near the end of the film.
- Platonic Prostitution: Turner visits a brothel to sketch the prostitutes.
- Random Events Plot: The films consists of a series of mostly disconnected vignettes from across multiple decades of Turner's life, many of which are mundane or miscellaneous things like having his picture taken and meeting with acquaintances, without a particular driving force or conflict behind them. Instead the film serves to illustrate Turner's psychology and the society he lived in.
- Scenery Porn: Both Turner's paintings and the film itself.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: The key element of Turner's character. His misanthropic, cruel personality hides a mind tortured by loss, insecurity about sexuality, and fears about his art.
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: Turner's reputation as an artist starts to suffer when his style becomes more abstract and people more used to realism don't understand his visionnote .
