Mr. Burton (2025) (original) (raw)
Synopsis
Some are born great. Some are inspired to be great.
In the Welsh town of Port Talbot, 1942, Richard Jenkins lives as a wayward schoolboy, caught between the pressures of his struggling family, a devastating war and his own ambitions. However, a new opportunity arises when Richard’s natural talent for drama catches the attention of his teacher, Philip Burton.
Cast
Popular reviews
I’m always envious of stories where teachers nurture a student’s artistic talents. All I ever got in school was yelled at about my handwriting and multiplication.
A surprisingly depressing film about someone having to change every single aspect of themselves to amount to something - the young Mr. Burton had to lose his accent, his language, his family, his hometown, his name, and only then could he be taken seriously. It's only a little more uplifting in light of the fact we know it will turn alright for Richard Burton in the end (well, comparatively at least, because his wikipedia page indicates he had quite the life), even though we last see him here as an angry and troubled alcoholic. Quite an odd premise for a 'movie star biopic' but that's what makes this one so interesting, it almost seems too unrealistic. Well-paced and Toby Jones is incredible, they should make a biopic about him instead.
Port Talbot still looks like that.
I barely understood the Welsh, but I have to admit I was sad to hear it go.
Posh people ruin everything.
A very safely directed, but well acted biopic. A nice easy watch. Toby Jones very rarely fails an assignment.
Shamefully took me 20 minutes of the movie to clock that it was about Richard Burton 🤦♂️
You’ll get an awful lot more out of Marc Evans’ quietly affecting biography if you focus on the right Mr Burton…
The incredible true-life tale of how Richard Jenkins, a son of an alcoholic miner destined to join his father in the collieries of Port Talbot during WWII, became the world famous Richard Burton, one of stage and screen’s greatest ever icons. Spotted at age 17 by Philip Burton (Toby Jones), his English teacher and an avid Shakespearean admirer and part time writer, Evans’ film shows the extent to which Burton the man is indeed an all-encompassing artifice of Jenkins. From his speech, his posture, even his very soul, the actor Richard Burton was created out of a wayward schoolboy,…
Dude paid £50.00 to adopt someone and yet nowadays that wouldn't even cover the cost of most new video games coming out.
Harry Lawtey such a diva in this.
Also why are none of the central actors in this WELSH, as they should be?!
An inspiring, but realistic look at the early life of the Welsh actor, Richard Burton. This film focuses on Richard Burton's adolescence and young adulthood, where he went from being a soft spoken, shy, and listless teenager, more interested in rugby than acting, to a young man determined to be one of the greatest actors of his generation.
Thanks to his high school English teacher, Philip Burton, the talented Richard Jenkins was tutored in acting, at one point strengthening his voice by screaming from on top of a hill. The film's story centers on how Philip Burton's tutelage and later adoption of Richard (giving him the Burton name), allowed the young actor to graduate from high school, gain further training…
This well intentioned and beautifully acted film is unfortunately a bit of a slog.
The Port Talbot of 1942 is lovingly evoked as Toby Jones (stunningly good as usual) incarnates the teacher who nurtured the young Richard Burton into becoming an actor despite the humblest of backgrounds.
Harry Lawtey delivers an equally impressive performance and whilst he barely resembles the famed actor in his early scenes, as he metamorphoses into the legend he would become the resemblance also transforms remarkably.
It is unfortunate therefore that this earnest film seems unable to be as riveting as it should have been. This may be attributable to the fact that it does not attempt to cover any of Burton’s decades as a film…
Felt like I was running a retirement home with the amount of old ppl that came to see this one
Story by Dendy Cinemas 
Story by The Riverside