Thursday, March 12, 2015 12:12:26 PM | (age group: 50 or over.) | F
I agree with many of the reviewers about the extraordinary camera work that allowed us to see what Turner saw and Timothy Spall and the cast were superb. But I do not understand why Mike Leigh made the movie. I have done a lot of research on Turner and his life. He was NOTHING like he was portrayed in the movie--a grunting, fornicating, self-absorbed gargoyle.
Turner was extremely wealthy in his own right. He took care of the women he loved (including the 'niece' that he boffed against the bookshelf. She was the mother of two of his children. He acknowledged all his children including Mrs. Danby and Mrs Booth. Even though he didn't marry any of the women he loved--he saw to their care and
Friday, February 13, 2015 1:59:53 PM | (age group: 2-17) | F
It was beautiful to watch with the idea that we saw what Turner painted. Glowing seascapes, green valleys where wild horses run, roiling clouds and much more. I thought he was too jolly with his fellow artists compared to his difficult and crabby demeanor with his the people he lived with. Except of course Mrs. Booth whom he really loved. An entertaining movie but too long.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015 10:47:19 PM | (age group: 50 or over.) | M
The movie opens with the artist's father shaving the hair off a pig's decapitated head before asking if anyone wants "more cheek." Then the artist's father hacks and phlegms and coughs his way through the next half hour of the movie until he finally dies (thankfully). This is followed later by the artist himself coughing and phlegming and hacking and spitting and continually grunting "Hmmmmm" like a giant pig. (I kept feeling like I needed a bronchodilator) During this time, we slowly watch the maid's skin fall off from some kind of leprosy-like skin disease. And then the artist spits on his painting and sodomizes the maid. This utterly disgusting menagerie is outdone, however, by the
Friday, January 30, 2015 3:20:11 PM | (age group: 50 or over.) | M
the film was STUNNINGLY visual and transporting and I wasn't bothered by the lack of coherent narrative…the way it meandered. As a snapshot of life at that time and the struggles/fights of the artists and the academy I figure was spot on. Turner's obsessive egocentricity and preoccupation seemed very believable given his work and the stories that have always circulated about his being tied to the ship mast/ leaning dangerously outside of a train window to literally EXPERIENCE the extremes of nature. It was also very very funny at times (I howled at the pretentiousness of the young John Ruskin in the drawing room scene that begins with an interminable conversation about gooseberries and
Sunday, January 25, 2015 4:16:49 PM | (Age Not Specified)
Beautiful cinematography showing beautiful textures of the seashore and countryside of Britain, but the story was way too long with way too many grunting scenes. What a miserable guy, who spread his misery around to all who knew him. Can't believe this took almost 3 hours! Ridiculous!
Sunday, January 18, 2015 3:43:57 PM | (age group: 2-17) | F
Fabulously beautiful, stunning images as if in a Turner painting, great acting, attention to detail, exquisite musical score: when a forte piano is played or a period clarinet, that's what you hear! Unbelievable that this film has no Oscarention!
