Mr. Turner

Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by his housekeeper, Hannah Danby, whom he takes for granted and occasionally uses sexually, painter J. M. W. Turner forms a close and loving relationship with a seaside landlady, Mrs. Booth, with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea.

Turner travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits a brothel, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.{{cite web|url=http://www.cine-vue.com/2014/04/cannes-2014-mr-turner-preview.html|title=Cannes 2014: 'Mr. Turner' preview|author=CineVue|work=CineVue - Award-winning UK film site|date=29 April 2014 }}

The story recreates the memorable occasion during the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1832 when Turner's seascape Helvoetsluys was placed next to Constable's The Opening of Waterloo Bridge seen from Whitehall. Seeing how the muted tones of his own painting paled next to Constable's vibrant work, in a quick stroke Turner adds a smear of red paint representing a buoy. Recognising Turner's genius, Constable says, "He's been here and fired a gun."

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• Timothy Spall as J. M. W. Turner: The controversial artist; he never married but had two lovers. He fathered two children with one, though he denied paternity.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/oct/23/timothy-spall-jmw-turner-mike-leigh |title=Timothy Spall to play JMW Turner in Mike Leigh biopic |author=Ben Child |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=23 October 2012}}
• Dorothy Atkinson as Hannah Danby: Turner's devoted housekeeper for 40 years, whom he exploits sexually. Leigh said that the sexual relationship was "an invention not based on any historical evidence".Short documentary film: The Many Colours of Mr. Turner. Narrated by: Mike Leigh. Producer: Special Treats Productions. She suffered from the skin disease psoriasis and died two years after Turner.
• Marion Bailey as Sophia Booth: Turner's landlady and lover, twice widowed, with one son by her first husband. After her second husband died, she became involved with Turner.
• Paul Jesson as William Turner Snr: Turner's father, a barber. His wife died young in a mental hospital, and their only other child died at 5. He lived with his artist son until his death, which deeply affected Turner.
• Lesley Manville as Mary Somerville, a scientist and friend of Turner. She gained renown at a time when women engaging seriously in scientific study was not condoned.
• Martin Savage as Benjamin Robert Haydon: Turner's friend, an artist who committed suicide.
• Ruth Sheen as Sarah Danby: Hannah's aunt by marriage and Turner's first lover and the mother of his two unacknowledged daughters. Her husband and Hannah's uncle, a musician, had died, leaving her a young widow.
• David Horovitch as Dr Price: Turner's doctor
• Karl Johnson as Mr. Booth, a sea captain and second husband of Sophia Booth
• Peter Wight as Joseph Gillott: wealthy arts patron
• Joshua McGuire as John Ruskin
• Stuart McQuarrie as Ruskin's father
• Sylvestra Le Touzel as Ruskin's mother
• Leo Bill as J. E. Mayall: pioneering photographer
• Kate O'Flynn as Prostitute: Eliza is the young prostitute sketched by Turner.
• Sinead Matthews as Queen Victoria: the young queen who sneers at Turner's later work.
• Karina Fernandez as Miss Coggins: musician who plays Dido's Lament by Henry Purcell, to Turner's singing.
• Richard Bremmer as George Jones: artist famous for battle scenes
• Mark Stanley as Clarkson Stanfield: marine painter
• Jamie Thomas King as David Roberts: Scottish Orientalist painter
• Tom Wlaschiha as Prince Albert
• Patrick Godfrey as Lord Egremont: arts patron (such as Carew) and owner of Petworth House where Turner spent much time.
• Niall Buggy as John Carew: Irish sculptor
• Fred Pearson as Sir William Beechy: portrait painter
• Tom Edden as C. R. Leslie: genre painter
• Clive Francis as Martin Archer Shee: portrait painter
• Robert Portal as Sir Charles Eastlake: painter and gallery director
• James Fleet as John Constable: landscape painter, doyen of the Romantic movement
• Nicholas Jones as Sir John Soane: neo-classical architect and art collector
• Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Henry William Pickersgill: portrait painter
• Simon Chandler as Sir Augustus Wall Callcott: landscape artist
• Edward de Souza as Thomas Stothard: painter and engraver
• Oliver Maltman as theatre actor
• Sam Kelly as theatre actor

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The original screenplay was written by Mike Leigh with research by historian Jacqueline Riding. Mr. Turner was filmed in several locations around the UK. Margate was not used to represent Turner's Margate, which was filmed at Kingsand in Cornwall. The production visited Kent to shoot a couple of scenes. Wentworth Woodhouse in Rotherham stood in for the Royal Academy in London, with the production crew meticulously recreating the way the paintings of the era were displayed. {{HMS|Gannet|1878|6}} in the Historic Dockyard Chatham was used in the scene where Turner has himself strapped to the mast of a sailing ship during a storm. Stangate Creek doubled as the Thames when Turner and his friends are rowed along the Thames and discuss {{HMS|Victory}}, then toast {{HMS|Temeraire|1798|6}}.{{cite web|author=Kent Film Office|url=http://kentfilmoffice.co.uk/2014/10/mr-turner-2014/|title=Kent Film Office Mr Turner Article|date=15 October 2014 }}

{{Main|Mr. Turner (soundtrack)}}

Mr. Turner had its premiere at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2014/film/news/cannes-unveils-2014-official-selection-lineup-1201158710/|title=Cannes Film Festival: Official Selection Lineup Announced - Variety|date=17 April 2014|work=Variety}} where it competed for the Palme d'Or, with Spall winning Best Actor and Dick Pope winning the Vulcan Award. Entertainment One released the film in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2014. Sony Pictures Classics handled the United States distribution, with a release date of 19 December 2014. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2014/film/news/tiff-toronto-intl-film-festival-gala-special-presentations-1201266480/|title=Toronto Film Festival Lineup|access-date=22 July 2014|work=Variety|date=22 July 2014 }}

The film was leaked by the hacker group "Guardians of Peace" onto peer-to-peer file-sharing websites on 27 November 2014, more than three weeks ahead of its intended U.S. theatrical release, as part of the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack. Along with it came Fury and three other then unreleased Sony Pictures films (Annie, Still Alice and To Write Love on Her Arms).{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2014/digital/news/new-sony-films-pirated-in-wake-of-hack-attack-1201367036/|title=Sony's New Movies Leak Online Following Hack Attack|work=Variety|date=30 November 2014 |access-date=2 December 2014}} Within three days of the initial leak, an estimated 63,379 unique IPs had downloaded Mr. Turner.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 196 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Led by a masterful performance from Timothy Spall and brilliantly directed by Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner is a superior Hollywood biopic."{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_turner/|title=Mr. Turner (2014)|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date=18 November 2022}} On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 94 out of 100 based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/mr-turner|title=Mr. Turner Reviews|website=Metacritic|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc.|access-date=22 February 2015}}

Critic Katie Kilkenny of The Atlantic called it "a gorgeous, important film".{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/12/mr-turner-more-myth-than-man/384018/|title=Mr. Turner Turns a Man Into a Myth, Beautifully|last=Kilkenny|first=Katie|work=The Atlantic|date=24 December 2014|access-date=24 September 2015}} Observer critic Mark Kermode described the film as a "portrait of a man wrestling light with his hands as if it were a physical element: tangible, malleable, corporeal".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/02/mr-turner-review-mike-leigh-biopic-great-master|title=Mr Turner review – Mike Leigh shines a brilliant new light on the great master|last=Kermode|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Kermode|work=The Observer|date=2 November 2014|access-date=24 September 2015}} Slate reviewer Dana Stevens wrote, "Writing about Mr. Turner a few weeks after seeing it, I feel a craving to be again immersed in its world, which is rich with colors, textures, and, it sometimes almost seems, smells".{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2014/12/mike_leigh_s_jmw_turner_biopic_mr_turner_starring_timothy_spall_reviewed.html|title=Mr. Turner|last=Stevens|first=Dana|work=Slate|date=18 December 2014|access-date=24 September 2015}}

The consonance between the film and its subject was addressed by Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Galleries in England: “Mike Leigh and Timothy Spall’s great achievement is showing us how the artist approached the physical business of painting. But they also convey the spirit of a man whose reputation as a curmudgeon is unwarranted, given his passionate interest in people and the world around him. There is a great humanitarian streak in Turner and Mike Leigh has found a way of capturing this on film, as he has done so often before.”Serota is quoted in {{cite news|first=Ryan|last=Gilbey|date=16 January 2015|title=The Baftas vs Mike Leigh: why is our greatest auteur continually snubbed?|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/16/the-baftas-vs-mike-leigh-why-is-mr-turner-director-continually-snubbed}}

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three and a half out of four, writing that like Leigh's 1999 film Topsy-Turvy, about the creation of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado, "[Mr. Turner] understands creative people on every conceivable level, and translates that understanding with a deftness rarely seen outside of astute documentaries about creative people. To watch it is to feel as though you're a part of its world... experiencing tiny fluctuations in received wisdom and sudden changes of artistic direction that can only be sensed by professionals who are plugged into their art form, and completely in command of their talents."{{cite web|last1=Seitz|first1=Matt Zoller Seitz|author-link1=Matt Zoller Seitz|title=Mr. Turner Movie Review & Film Summary|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mr-turner-2014|website=RogerEbert.com|publisher=Ebert Digital LLC|access-date=24 July 2017|date=19 December 2014}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://sonyclassics.com/mrturner Official Website]
• {{IMDb title|2473794}}
• {{Metacritic film}}
• {{Mojo title|mrturner}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|mr_turner}}

{{Mike Leigh}}

{{J. M. W. Turner}}

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