I saw Mrs Lowry & Son last week and thought it was superb. Both Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave acted "their socks off". It's extremely moving in parts, the scenes where Lowry was interacting with the children I found especially poignant. He never married or had children, and one has to think that his own upbringing was a huge influence in that. There is a permanent exhibition of some of his works in the Lowry Centre at Salford. I saw it a few years back and was amazed at the different styles that he painted in, having only been aware of his "matchstick men" paintings before. It led me to read up on Lowry and found that his childhood was not at all a happy one.
I also saw Turner and like others above, did not enjoy it. I found it to be far too long amongst other issues, and just kept wishing it would end. I would have left, but was sitting in the middle of a row and didn't want to disturb anyone. Mrs Lowry, on the other hand, was too short and I didn't want it to end. There is a short film that shows immediately after the main film; this is Tim Spall and the curator of the Lowry collection in Salford discussing some of the works. It's also very enjoyable and gives you a wee sight of some of his non-matchstick men works.
Mrs L is the first film I've seen Tim Spall in since he lost a lot of weight and he truly is a different man. When one thinks back to "Barry" in "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet", who would have imagined him ever portraying two of the UK's greatest artists?
One last point; there is a scene where Mrs Lowry is out of her bed and soaking her feet in a basin on the floor, it's stunningly beautiful, Redgrave looks like she's been carved from marble.
