MR BURTON Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Marc Evans
Stars: Toby Jones, Harry Lawtrey, Lesley Manville, Steffan Rhodri, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Aneurin Barnard.
A top box office star in the 60s Richard Burton is recognised as one of the greatest actors of his generation. He won a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway production of Camelot, and was also nominated seven times for the Oscar, without winning. He was also well known for his drinking and his turbulent marriages to Elizabeth Taylor.
This well-made biopic depicts how Richard Jenkins, the teenaged son of an impoverished and drunken coal miner from Port Talbot in Wales was transformed into Richard Burton, one of the most acclaimed stage actors of the twentieth century. The script from first time feature writer Tony Bullough and BAFTA winner Josh Hyams (the tv series Hoff The Record) also explores his self-destructive nature but it also seems to take some liberties with the facts for dramatic purposes.
The Mr Burton of the title though is actually Phillip Burton (played here by veteran Toby Jones), the quiet schoolteacher who recognised something in the young Richard and had a profound impact on shaping his life. Burton boarded in the small but neatly maintained house of Ma Smith (Lesley Manville, from Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, etc), a thoughtful local woman who obviously cared a lot for the bookish teacher. When Richard declared that would like to become an actor rather than work in the mines Mr Burton, himself an amateur thespian who occasionally wrote scripts for BBC radio drama, took the young man under his wing. He honed his passion for the theatre and provided exercises to help train and modify his voice. Jenkins’ own father (Steffan Rhodri) was sceptical of his career choice. Phillip later adopted Richard as his ward. Richard later wrote that he owed Phillip Burton everything.
Jones delivers one of his best performances here as Burton, suffusing the character with a sense of decency, intelligence and strength but he also captures his inner sadness. Harry Lawtrey (from Benediction, etc) completely inhabits the character of the young and determined Richard, and captures his arrogance, his volatile nature, a hint of his temperament, and he delivers a performance of great range. He grows in confidence as the film progresses. Jones and Lawtrey develop a great dynamic that drives the film. Manville is wonderful as Ma, the landlady with whom Mr Burton boards.
Mr Burton has been directed by Marc Evans (Snow Cake, etc). The film provides a fascinating glimpse into the relationship between Mr Burton and young Richard, although it seems to rush through an eight-year period in which Richard abandoned his mentor after hearing some nasty whispers about what the townsfolk perceived to be Mr Burton’s true intentions towards the younger man and his first dramatic stage appearance in Henry IV Part 2 at Stratford itself.
Tim Dickel’s superb production design and the costumes perfectly capture the look of this post WWII era quite well. Cinematographer Stuart Biddlecombe (tv series The Handmaid’s Tale, etc) captures the grimy and harsh landscapes of the Welsh mining town shrouded in ugly coal dust, although the gritty smoke-filled skies seem to have been created digitally and appear a little fake.
★★★☆
