But Tolkien was a firm believer that even the best and happiest of fantasies are also the saddest ones. Though Tolkien was not a fan of allegory, he had no shortage of sadness and struggle in his personal experiences to draw from, forming lifelong friendships, finding love, serving his country in war, and living an incredible life that itself felt like a fantasy. So with that, you'd expect this biopic - of his early life before The Hobbit - to be just as enchanting and engaging. But stripped of all fantasy, it lacks that imaginative spirit of its title figure, and simply feels tired.
In the early 1900's, young John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) spends much of his days studying and prepping for academic college life, forming friendships with Geoffrey Smith (Anthony Boyle), Robert Gibson (Patrick Gibson), and Christoper Wiseman (Tom Glynn-Carney) to form the Tea Club and Barrovian Society (or TCBS), and falls madly in love with boarding-housemate Edith Bratt (Lily Collins). But intercut with Tolkien's growing love for fantasy and literature, we also share in his experiences in World War I, along the way finding inspiration for his most iconic and beloved stories.
There's a lot of rich potential to be mined from the life of Tolkien, and could conceivably make several great films, or even a great mini-series. In fact, the film itself has the vibe of a mini-series, with many intricate pieces and interweaving flashforwards between Tolkien's young adulthood to his wartime ventures. It all goes along with Tolkien's belief that the best fantasies are paved with struggle and sorrow, an inspiration not lost on director Dome Kurukoski, a lifelong fan and admirer of Tolkien and his stories, who genuinely seems like a passionate man of his craft, and must be pouring his heart and soul into the product.
The problem is not that this movie doesn't run with its potential. The problem is that it runs us through these experiences in the most tired, banal fashion you could possibly muster up. Simply put, there is no thematic consistency to this movie whatsoever, as too frequently it feels like we're casually hopping between ideas, and so the film is left little actual room to breathe. Opening with the unexpected death of his mother, and taken in by a priest (Colm Meaney), we have our first thoughtful nugget in exploring Tolkien's faith, and how it came to shape, both directly and indirectly, the rest of his life.
And credit where it's due, Nicholas Hoult is a solid Tolkien. Despite the flimsy and subdued characterization, he does imbue it with a strong wondrous eye, embodying the natural gift of storytelling that his title role possessed, and has some genuinely affecting emotional moments, even if he does lean a little too heavily on the stoic.
But clearly that's not enough, as soon we also have the founding of the TCBS, and his lifelong friendships formed within the club, and this highlights how one-dimensional his companions are. With the band of young men, the intention is clear, to have obvious parallels to Tolkien's later literature, reminiscent of the fellowship of Hobbits that ventured from the Shire. And it's not that chemistry isn't there, but distinguishing characteristics aren't. None of the members feel distinct in their writing or their direction, and so they quickly blend in with one another through the movie, to the point that they don't even get proper send-offs before the film ends.
We then have the love story between Tolkien and Edith Bratt, his passionate flame and a lover of music and fantasy. Lily Collins is such a ray of sunshine in this movie, an encouraging and spirited woman of her time, that bored from her recurring obligation to play insipid piano tunes, and freed to let her imaginative eye take hold when paired with John, she carries herself with such grace, feeling almost unworldly and ethereal in her presence. That Elvish vibe is certainly not lost on the film, with one of the highlights being a simple, but enchanting sequence where Edith dances in a grove for Tolkien, bathed in saturated sunlight.
But then comes another strand, that being Tolkien's eventual love for literature, specifically his fascination with language. Being one with an imaginative mind, Tolkien had a real gift for words, even inventing his own languages and dialects for his stories. Despite that imagination, he does prove to be a shoddy student, with his grades gradually slipping through the film, but whose passion is eventually reignited by his love of text and linguistics, that's even encouraged by one of his college professors, an utterly charming Derek Jacobi who steals all of his scenes in the final third of the film. It's love for the escapism that words and storytelling can offer, that Tolkien himself directly inspired, that can be such an invaluable gift, and even makes its way into the horrors of the trenches.
Finally, we have how the experiences of World War I directly shaped Tolkien's life, and served as dark inspiration for his stories. Amidst the horrors of dead bodies, grazing bullets, and the burning ash of No Man's Land, that escapism becomes a lasting tool to him. In place of flamethrowers, he sees dragons, soldiers in battle become armored knights, and mortar shells and fire take the vague shape of Suaron and the Ringwraiths. I say vague because it's clear that the filmmakers, despite basing the film on Tolkien, ironically don't have the rights to his actual stories, and so everything is presented as close as they possibly can without legally infringing on copyright.
It's not that these ideas and themes can't hold the narrative, or that the film can't explore them all at once, but the film is restless in how it crams them all in. It's clear the film has a severe case of identity disorder, as it refuses to part with any detail no matter how trivial, and so the tropes keep building, and the enchantment is diminished. Even though it's relentlessly draggy, it's somehow also unbelievably rushed, making such a fascinating individual gradually feel less compelling, and so that obvious passion behind the project is almost completely lost, and you wish the film embodied more of that inspired fantastical eye.
Tolkien isn't a bad film by any means, but it's an incredibly disappointing one, that squanders its title figure's engaging story, and if not for the flashes and glimpses of fantasy to breathe life into it, would simply be any other coming of age period piece. Even for fans of costume drama, it isn't a strong film on its own merits. It's a fine film, but it could have been so much better, if it could simply make its mind up. As it stands, it's a film that wants to feel epic, but actually feels minuscule in its execution.
**1/2 / *****
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