Tolkien

Tolkien (3.5 out of 5 stars).

Tolkien is a beautifully done biographical drama film about a famous fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien who went on to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series. It touched the base when him and his brother lost their mother to some illness. J.R.R. then went to a school where he met a few other teenagers that he did not get along with. Until, eventually they become close friends. There bond grows stronger over the years and they inspire each other to make a difference. He meets Edith (Lily Collins) who he falls in love with. He gets separated when he is drafted into World War 1.

The plot is pretty decent for a biographical film about J.R.R. Tolkien. The movie was a bit slow in the second act with Tolkien and his fellowship friends talking about stories. It could have been better handled. The plot is inspirational. Tolkien and his friends no matter how often they fight with each other, they will always be brothers. Tolkien and Edith fall deeply in love until they go on different paths. Years later, they come across each other again.

Nicholas Hoult is great as Tolkien. Lily Collins was also good as Edith. The music score by Thomas Newman is beautifully done. The direction delivers the eerie tone during the World War 1 scenes. Tolkien suffering from an illness. And trying to find his friends. When they are attacked. He witnesses most of his man killed in combat. Which he feels like he is isolated and he starts seeing visions of dragons out of flamethrowers. Or the aftermath smoke from the explosions looking like a dark lord Sauron. Which he uses his experience to write a fantasy story. While his one focus theme is the journey that everyone goes too and the experiences they face.

Overall, Tolkien is a pretty fair film. The plot is a bit inspirational and emotional with the journey Tolkien experiences. Sadly, the film suffers from an uneven pace in the second act of the movie. The performances and music score is fantastic.

A story as romantic as biographical of the first three decades of J.R.R. Tolkien, who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion: his childhood and adolescence just before the first world war and his decisive encounters (Edith Bratt who will become his wife, the professor Joseph Wright who will turn his mentor and help him to to enter to the University of Oxford, and his friends with whom he will form a brotherhood, or even a fellowship). The analogies with his novels are obvious: the Ringwraiths a.k.a. the Nazgûl between the German trenches of the Bay of the Somme, or even Sauron on his black horse and his huge sword. The film portrays also the manifold sources of inspiration such as Nordic cultures / languages or operas like Der Ring des Nibelungen composed by Richard Wagner. The photography, the Computer-Generated Imagery and the costumes are excellent. The movie reflects reality more or less closely (the audience shall then dissociate the real from the fantasy) but is globally poetic. 6/7 of 10.

The film is satisfying for the most part - I just wished there was another hour tagged onto the ending which would show us how he created some of his legendarium.

The film mainly focuses on his friendships and romance with Edith in school - very little of the war was shown. Also showed his relationships with a couple of his teachers.

You will easily see in the film how things connected to his books - hidden references as well obvious ones.

Very good movie if you like biographies, romances and/or Tolkien.

8/10

Tolkien was an unashamedly highly devout Catholic. The movie completely misses all of this.

For example, the movie opens with the Tolkien family thrust into poverty. It skips the fact that this was because Tolkien's mother converters to Catholicism in a very anti-Catholic Britain and was ostracised by her family who would not support her at all. Many more such examples missed. Tolkien called his mother a "martyr for Catholicism" and that The Lord of the Rings was fundamentally "a Catholic story."

...because it represents more than a biopic. Because it gives a bitter - poetic portrait of familiar things. From friendship to bitter choices, from love to discover of vocation, from war to the most significant small things defining you. Because it is real well acted and has inspired script and propose a version of Tolkien ' s life more touching and precise than I expect. A film about war and passion and friendship and love , seductive for the game of nuances and for a sort of...magic. And, sure, Nicholas Hould seems the most wise option for the roles of real, real special writers.