From Mr Turner
I haven’t talked about a film before. And maybe this will be the first and last time. Who knows? But I saw this film last week and I thought it was brilliant. Quite unusually, we couldn’t go on the day we’d wanted, because it was fully booked out. And when we went to the cinema. every seat was taken. Now I know there’s been a lot of hype about this film and to be honest, that usually puts me off. But this was different. I was absorbed from the start, the three hours passed in no time. I read somewhere that the film took two years to research. I would say the money was very well spent. But some of my friends disagreed. One said they found the constant submission of Mr Turner’s maid irritating, a figure of fun. But wasn’t she in love with Mr Turner, if not obsessed? Yes, he took advantage of her, but quite probably this was normal behaviour during those times. After all it is only relatively recently that domestic violence has become a crime and not that long ago men were permitted to beat their wives ‘to within an inch of their lives’. Another friend said they disliked the fact that Mr Turner was portrayed as not a nice man after all. But he was portrayed as flawed, a three dimensional character obsessed with his art. I think this film deserves every award it gets.
Amanda Sington-Williams Writer 