Film

Gorgeous Richard Burton Biopic Is More Than Meets The Eye

20 March 2026

It’s worth approaching any film about a real-life famous person, and especially one about their origins, with a bit of skepticism – not just in terms of its factuality, but as works of art. A famous name is its own form of IP, and just like any revisit of a pre-branded franchise, biopics don’t always have an interest in excavating their subjects. At their laziest, they’re just another attempt to get us wallowing in nostalgia.

So, when I sat down to watch Mr. Burton, which explores the formative relationship that set a young Richard Burton on his path to eventual stardom, I kept returning to one litmus test: Does this movie find what’s interesting in this story beyond the fact that it happened to this specific person? And while the visual style had me nervous, I’m pleased to report that the answer is yes. Mr. Burton is a well-acted and beautifully shot story of transformation that isn’t afraid to raise complicated questions about the nature of such change. Though by no means challenging viewing, it will offer more than you might’ve expected.

Harry Lawtey’s Performance Is Mr. Burton’s Greatest Selling Point

Richard at the beach with an open book in his hands in Mr Burton

Directed by Marc Evans, Mr. Burton is not actually named for the legendary Welsh actor, who was famously twice married to Elizabeth Taylor. As a teen in early 1940s Port Talbot, Richard Jenkins (Harry Lawtey) did not yet bear that name. Instead, the title refers to his English teacher, Philip “PH” Burton (Toby Jones), a mild, kind bachelor and lover of the theater, whose own aspirations in that world have only taken him as far as working on regional radio plays for the BBC. Their paths intersect when, as a punishment, PH tasks Richard with memorizing a passage from Shakespeare’s Henry V – which doesn’t end up feeling very punitive to the boy at all.

Lawtey’s Richard Jenkins is gangly and meek, but clearly curious. His father (Steffan Rhodri), a miner and alcoholic, has little to do with his children, though Richard still nurtures the hope of earning his love and approval; his mother died when he was too little to remember. He’s been raised by his older sister, Cis (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), and lives with her family, much to her husband’s chagrin. He thinks it’s time for the boy to leave school and start paying his own way – they’re struggling to keep themselves afloat on his miner’s pay as it is. But Richard’s caught the bug. He asks Mr. Burton whether he has what it takes to become an actor.

What ensues is a more grounded take on My Fair Lady, as the teacher trains his pupil not only in the craft of acting, but in the kinds of speech and behavior that will grant him access to a higher social stratum. Mr. Burton is aware of the connection, winking at it by having the two stage Pygmalion, and despite enjoying the easy comedy of Richard learning to project his voice by screaming in a field, the film acknowledges this dynamic is… odd. And potentially problematic in multiple ways.

When we meet him, Richard has a strong Welsh accent; he comfortably speaks Welsh at home with his family. PH’s elocution lessons, while well-intentioned, are also pushes for assimilation. Mr. Burton isn’t interested in prescribing a perspective on that, but it does raise the issue as a way to explore Richard’s psychology. Why does he pursue this change? Who is really responsible for shaping the person he will become? The film doesn’t provide easy answers, but wisely lets us sit with the questions.

PH Burton looking inquisitive while speaking to someone in Mr Burton

Similarly, why is PH doing all this? The way Jones plays him, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he’s helping Richard out of the kindness of his heart. But he’s so contained that, over time, it starts to feel like repression. Could this be his way of dealing with his professional frustrations? Ma (Lesley Manville), the sweet woman who rents PH his room, is concerned about what people might infer from his closeness with the boy. Could he be motivated by desire, even subconsciously? It’s very much to Evans’ credit that his movie is willing to engage with these ideas, and even let them simmer underneath PH and Richard’s scenes as their relationship evolves.

But Mr. Burton is no thorny psychological drama. It’s built for the most part like a conventional biopic, and goes down smooth and easy. It’s beautiful to look at, which always helps, though the cinematography has a warm, elegaic glow about it that did make me question the movie’s perspective on these events. The score is often much too wistful, and at times, the film verges on being overly sweet. The script’s cynical edge is very necessary.

The film’s greatest strength, though, is its performances, and specifically Harry Lawtey’s. Mr. Burton feels a bit long, at 124 minutes, but the benefit of that runtime is that it captures the full scope of Richard’s transformation. Lawtey is the chief reason that process remains so interesting for so long. He takes all of Richard’s psychological complications and renders them physically, so that who he is at any given moment is legible in the way he moves. Alongside My Fair Lady, I thought often of Frankenstein. The tension between what Richard was becoming and who was responsible sits at all times behind the actor’s eyes.

The moment he truly becomes Richard Burton is quite striking, and though I have mixed feelings about where the last act takes the story, I’m glad to have seen the full arc of Lawtey’s performance. I would recommend Mr. Burton for that reason alone, but, thankfully, I don’t have to. The film may not always conquer its genre’s tendency toward oversimplification, but what complexity makes it to the screen is enough to come away from it with something to chew on.

Mr. Burton is in US theaters and available on VOD from Friday, March 20.