Mr. Burton (12A) |Close-Up Film Review
Dir: Marc Evans UK 2025, 124 mins.
Cast: Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Lesley Manville, Aneurin Barnard, Steffan Rhodri, Aimee Ffion Edwards
Review by Carlie Newman
We see him studying at school under the schoolmaster, Mr. Burton. Richard lives with his sister, Cis (Aimee-Ffion Edwards, giving a sympathetic performance) and her husband, Elfed (Aneurin Barnard, who gives a realistic portrayal of the working-class brother-in-law of Richard) in Port Talbot, Wales. Elfed is unpleasant to Richard as he resents paying for Richie’s upkeep.
Richard doesn’t have much joy from his father either as Dic Jenkins (a strong Steffan Rhodri) drinks all the time and has no money. In fact, the only one who understands him and befriends him is Philip Burton. When Richard is forced by Elfed to leave school and go and work in a local Coop store, Mr. Burton rescues him by enabling him to return to school.
Richard gets a taste four the stage and tells Mr. Burton that he would like to be an actor. The teacher, who has a strong love for English literature and the stage, trains, Richie until he is able to become a professional actor. Mr. Burton spends time with him and later arranges for Richie to take a room in his landlady’s house. Lesley Manville plays the landlady, Mrs. Smith, known as’Ma.’ She feels pity for young Richie, whose mother died when he was very small. Ma helps him to develop social skills while Mr. Burton teaches him how to use his voice correctly and beautifully. When Mr. Burton uses his influence to get Richard sponsorship for Oxford University, he has to legally adopt him and give him his Burton surname in order to stop people talking about the gay teacher and his young student.
We see Richard gain some fame as a star at Stratford-upon-Avon. With success, although he still needs coaching from Philip Burton (his full name being Philip Henry Burton, he is frequently addressed as PH). Richie belittles and dismisses him. He drinks a lot and seems to spend as much time partying as taking rehearsals seriously. They later make up after Richard apologies and admits he owes everything to Mr. Burton. The two become lifelong friends and Richard acknowledges he has two fathers.
There is some lovely Welsh scenery on view and the end of the war period is well depicted under the direction of Mark Evans. Some good background music provides atmosphere. While Harry Latey manages quite a lot of Richard Burton’s mannerisms, he doesn’t completely give us the wonderful voice or indeed his handsome appearance. But Toby Jones gives a tremendous performance as the teacher who inspires Richard Burton to excel as an actor. We believe him as he responds to Richard’s question, “Don’t you get lonely living alone?” With ‘“A cultured person is never alone.”
