John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, aka J.R.R. Tolkien, is one of the most famous and acclaimed authors of the 20th century. Tolkien is probably best known for his high fantasy novels, namely The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Even though fantasy novels weren’t unknown back then, Tolkien’s work led to a massive resurgence in the genre. His works have gone on to inspire numerous artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers, Tolkien considered the “father” of high fantasy. In 1978, animator Ralph Bakshi brought Lord of the Rings to the big screen, followed by Rankin-Bass in 1980. Between 2001 and 2003, a series of live-action films directed by Peter Jackson were released to critical and commercial success. This was followed by a series of films between 2012-2014 based on Tolkien’s The Hobbit novel. Flash forward to 2019, where we now have a biopic of the man behind the novels himself, Tolkien.
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After their mother dies of an illness, brothers J.R.R. and Hilary Tolkien are taken in by Father Francis (Colm Meaney). He enrolls the two into King Edward’s School, where J.R.R. soon forms a group of friends called the T.C.B.S. In addition to Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult), there’s Geoffrey Smith (Anthony Boyle), Robert Gilson (Patrick Gibson), and Christopher Wiseman (Tom Glynn-Carney). The four dream of changing the world, hanging out at the Barrows Store for tea, and sharing their artistic talents. Soon, Tolkien meets Edith Bratt (Lilly Collins), a young and independent woman who plays piano, and they fall in love. Tolkien takes an interest in the history of languages, and he studies etymology while attending Oxford University. Overtime, he starts drawing and writing stories based on the fantasy tales his mother told him as a child. Eventually, he and his friends go off to fight in WWI, changing their lives forever.
While I’m not exactly a huge Lord of the Rings fan, I certainly acknowledge and respect their influence and legacy. Going into this, I knew next to nothing about Tolkien, so I thought going into this would be interesting. Unfortunately, while this movie isn’t terrible, it’s a pretty standard biopic whose subject deserves much more, making this a disappointment. I don’t want to say too much negatives about this film since there’s clearly a lot of effort put in. The cast does a serviceable job, Nicholas Hoult and Lilly Collins are good together, and the three friends are enjoyable. Colm Meaney is fine if underused, though Derek Jacobi has some fun moments as a professor at Oxford. Dome Karukoski’s direction is good, though the visual style is on par with any other period piece. The movie cuts back and forth to Tolkien in WWI, and those scenes are competently done.
I’m sorry if this review is somewhat disappointing since there hasn’t been much discussed about the movie. Honestly, that’s the biggest problem with this film: it’s so ho-hum and average that it’s hardly worth talking about. There were actually times while I was watching this in the theater that I started to doze off. I feel like a really interesting movie could have been made about Tolkien’s life, but this was just meandering. This feels less like an in-depth biopic and more like the cliff notes version of Tolkien’s life. Obviously, a biopic isn’t going to be 100% accurate to real life, but this just hits on the main points. If you’re a huge Lord of the Rings fanatic, you’ll probably get something out of this film. Despite its intentions, Tolkien is a fairly dull biopic with some good performances and a competent if uninteresting visual style.
