Mr. Turner is refreshingly abrasive film

By Jenny Alvarez

Photos Courtesy

Mr. Turner is an eccentric British painter. Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies.

Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, 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.

It’s full of eccentric, unconventional and deeply sharp moments. The main character is a creative life with great mess in his personal life. It’s impossible not to equate the ideas in the film about working and living as an artist as reflections on the filmmaker’s existence and the best part is the beautiful landscapes and wardrobe, during two and a half hours of exquisitely drawn and beautifully photographed vignettes of Turner’s life, the viewer will enjoy all the likeness of each character.