Mr. Turner is great looking and very well acted, Spall delivers one of the best performances of the year, but it isn’t really about anything in particular. Well, it’s about J.M.W. Turner, but it doesn’t say much about him or his art in any obvious sense, it just kind of plays itself out over the course of 2 1/2 hours, bobbing from one weird and well-acted scene to the next. If you’re looking for your typical bio pic material, look elsewhere. Turner doesn’t raise many difficult questions about art or life, but it also doesn’t posit any mind bending answers—in a year filled with black hole and quantum theory bullshit exposition, this film is a triumph of restraint. If you enjoy movies that don’t assume you’re stupid and don’t feel the need to explain everything to you, then give Mr. Turner a shot, it will certainly please your very odd sensibilities.