Review of Mr. Turner (2014) by Spangle — 05 Aug 2016

Oh my is Mr. Turner a slog to get through. Slow, dreadfully dull, and as precise as surgery, Mr. Turner is a film that is marvelously directed, acted, and shot, but sitting in the DMV has proved to be more engaging.

This film's cinematography is other worldly and cinematographer Dick Pope has provided some of the best shots of the decade with his work here. Unfortunately, the film is skin deep. It is like a hot girl that thinks she is smart, but is actually really dumb and lacks personality.

I rarely call a film pretentious, but I feel as though Mr. Turner fits the bill. Hollow and packed to the brim with self-importance, the appeal of Mr. Turner is wholly lost on me. It gets as high a rating as it does from me for a few reasons: the aforementioned cinematography (particularly the slow pans from characters to shots of scenery are brilliant), the costume design, and the production design.

All of these leave the film being a visual masterpiece of the highest order. Yet, the story elements and character elements are all beyond lackluster and lacking any sort of depth. The writing here is quite poor and the film is overlong.

It would have been well served to actually develop its characters and cut some of the runtime. As it stands, Mr. Turner is all beauty and no brains.