(PCM) Writer-director Mike Leigh is being heaped with praise from critics all around for his twelfth film, the biographical drama, Mr. Turner. After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 15, 2014, Mr. Turner will open in select U.S. theaters December 19.
Dramatizing the life of British painter J.M.W. Turner, Mr. Turner is written and directed by seven-time Academy Award nominated writer-director Mike Leigh. The drama has been called “an exquisitely detailed, brilliantly acted biopic” by Scott Foundas in Variety and Brian Viner of the Uk’s Daily Mail stated that the film is “Leigh’s own masterpiece.”
Critics have also been quick to praise Timothy Spall, most recognizable to American audiences as Wormtail in the Harry Potter series, for his performance as the eccentric painter. Spall won Best Actor at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of the controversial-for-his-time painter.
Lou Lumenick wrote in his review for the New York Post, “Timothy Spall… delivers an Oscar-caliber tour de force reminiscent of Charles Laughton” and Jason Best of Movie Talk wrote, “Spall’s Turner grunts and growls, gurgles and wheezes, but the performance could not be more eloquent, revealing the painter in all his contradictions and genius.”
With a fresh rating of 96%, Mr. Turner has a very positive critic consensus on Rotten Tomatoes: “Led by a masterful performance from Timothy Spall and brilliantly directed by Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner is a superior Hollywood biopic.”
Starring in Mr. Turner alongside Timothy Spall are Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Sandy Foster, Karl Johnson, Ruth Sheen, Amy Dawson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, and Richard Bremmer.
Watch the official trailer for Mr. Turner below, after the official synopsis, and visit the official Facebook of Mr. Turner for more info and updates!
This film explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). 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.
Mr. Turner is rated R for some sexual content, has a run time of 2 hours and 29 minutes, and opens in select U.S. theaters starting December 19, 2014!
The post Mike Leigh’s ‘Mr. Turner’ Opens in Select Theaters Friday, December 19 also appeared on PCM Reviews.