Mr. Turner Reviews
June 18, 2020
Turner emerges as a complex and memorably tragic figure building on contemporary notions of artists as wastrels and failed adults.
November 20, 2019
[O]verlong and contextually lacking.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
June 4, 2019
It's an extraordinary film that brings to life an extraordinary artist, warts and all.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
April 3, 2019
Mr. Turner is a work that sees Leigh finding the ideal balance between the intimate and the epic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
March 20, 2019
I've not in years seen an onscreen character that feels as fully-realized as Turner, and Spall's seamless performance combined with the immaculate set and costume design and stunning photography makes for a film that feels like a time machine.
Full Review
| Original Score: 9/10
March 7, 2019
What a fine film it is: rich, enjoyable, imaginative, faithful to Turner's spirit.
December 14, 2018
... it's the British director's best film in years.
February 19, 2018
It is such an extraordinary revelation, a breathtaking and acutely observed meditation on the intricacies of Victorian life, complete with a tour de force by Timothy Spall as the painter JMW Turner.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
January 12, 2018
All in all, the
150-minute Mr. Turner is an impressive accomplishment, laudable for the way it uses the figure of a single artist to explore both art and cinema.
November 9, 2017
Apart from the fantastic characterizations and top-notch cinematography, the real beauty of Turner's vision was his ability to find beauty in the seemingly ordinary.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
August 22, 2017
The resulting portrait, with all its mystery and theater, is utterly fascinating and emotionally expansive, as only Mike Leigh films are.
May 11, 2017
To call Mr. Turner one of the year's most overrated films seems unfair, as it's worth watching for beautiful cinematography and a plethora of gentle laughs.
June 6, 2016
Leigh's camera searches this world through slow and ponderous movements, every gesture by an actor as carefully calculated as the forceful actions Turner throws onto his canvases.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
May 22, 2016
J.M.W. Turner might well be the role Spall is forever linked to, like Sir Ben Kingsley and Gandhi. It is a virtuoso performance, but it is also great fun.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
April 26, 2016
It is by turns funny, tragic and savage, but the strongest sense both leave us with is one of wistful mourning. It's not easy being an artist.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
December 18, 2015
It is both off-putting and amusingly fascinating to watch the portrayal of the past 20 years or so of Turner's life, as a man who changed the perception of landscape artistry.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
December 7, 2015
It's certainly not a bad film, but aside from Spall's performance and the cinematography, this is one of [Leigh's] lesser works.
November 12, 2015
Thanks to Spall's marvelous, gruntingly animalistic performance, Pope's eye, and Leigh's deep methodology, Mr. Turner gives us an immersion if not an understanding of the gnomic artist.
October 17, 2015
Another finely reenacted if longwinded history lesson from director Mike Leigh.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
October 8, 2015
"Mr. Turner" painstakingly paints such a detailed portrait that those with enough patience to hang in there will be able to appreciate the complete picture and the filmmaker's craftsmanship.