Inspiring teacher cliches abound in Mr Burton, a drab, slag-heap-grey drama about the early life of the actor Richard Burton (Harry Lawtey), born Richard Jenkins in industrial south Wales in 1925. The Burton of the title is not the hot-headed teenage aspiring actor who we meet bunking with his sister’s family in Port Talbot, but rather the sympathetic teacher Philip Burton (Toby Jones), who spotted the schoolboy’s potential and coached him to extract the full value from his vowel sounds.
The always impressive Jones gives a satisfyingly fleshed-out turn as a closeted gay man forced to contend with whispers, rumours and outright hostility. And Lawtey, while way too old to convincingly pass as a schoolboy, has occasional flashes of Burton’s dangerous charisma. It’s a pity, then, that this sluggishly paced film, which leans heavily on a fussy, twinkling piano score, is so meandering and listless.