As I've mentioned on past reviews, Hollywood has had a compulsive fascination with the biopic subject matter, so much so, that we've seen a plethora in the past two plus decades, and I truly don't see a reduction on the amount we see on the screen any time soon. Many of them are incredibly well executed which makes them a safe bet when going to the multiplex. Between presidents, singers, actors, senators, CEO's, musicians, etc., biopics have covered multiple topics and people. So when I saw the trailer of "Tolkien", I felt it would be a great expose on the renowned writer and I was right.
This story explores the formative years of the renowned author's life as he, J.R.R. Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) finds friendship, courage and inspiration among a fellow group of writers and artists, namely Geoffrey Smith (Anthony Boyle), Robert Gilson (Patrick Gibson) and Christopher Wiseman (Tom Glynn-Carney) at school. Their brotherhood strengthens as they grow up and weather love and loss together, including Tolkien's tumultuous courtship of his beloved Edith Bratt (Lily Collins), until the outbreak of the First World War which threatens to tear their fellowship apart. All of these experiences would later inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-earth novels, namely "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings".
Others to round out the cast are Colm Meaney as Father Francis, Derek Jacobi as Professor Wright, James MacCallum as Hilary Tolkien, J.R.R.'s brother, Genevieve O'Reilly as Mrs. Smith, Geoffrey's mother, Al Bollands as First Soldier and Kallum Tolkien as Second Soldier.
This was directed with grit by Dome Karukoshi ("Beauty and the Bastard" '05, "The Home of Dark Butterflies" '08, "Forbidden Fruit" '09, "Lapland Odyssey" '10, "Valtative 13" (TV movie) '12, "Heart of a Lion" '13, "The Grump" '14, "Tom of Finland" '17) plus TV and shorts. This filmmaker was truly able to capture the wide-eyed, innocent Tolkien not only when he was young, but also when he became an adult as well with pathos and effectiveness. And his chemistry with his brotherhood of his buddies was spot on and believable in that it was clear that these guys were friends. It will be interesting to see how he does with "The Starling" which is in pre-production. It was written by David Gleeson ("Cowboys & Angels" '03, "The Front Line" '06, "Don't Go" '18) plus shorts and Stephen Beresford ("The Last of the Haussmans" '12, "Pride" '14). Clearly, with the exception of a couple of very small places of slowness in the storyline, this script was concise, cohesive and tight in its development. It was simply an amazing expose of the writer of the incredible books he has written. Gleeson had the lion's share of this screenplay, however I'm sure that Beresford was critical in his input. It would be interesting to see what these writers create next--hopefully they will collaborate again.
Surely if you are a 'Hobbit' or 'Lord of the Rings' fan, you will like this. It's not expressly about those books, however this gives us an inside perspective into the life of this amazing writer so as to understand his work that much more. This basically brings us up to the point of him writing "The Hobbit", so we have an idea where and how he could've come up with his ideas.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 112mins.
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