Tolkien

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source: Tolkien

Lovely film, great design, imagery, made me want to read the books, which the films never did! Not without flaws, but what film is, it seems to be getting criticism unfairly, it's entertaining, and opens you mind to language.

I am a huge Tolkien fan and after reading some of the critics reviews I was a bit wary of seeing this film. I do not know which film the "critics" have seen but from their conclusions I do not recognise this film. I have literally just left the cinema, I found it so moving that I found myself in floods of tears. Beautifully acted, and set against the backdrop of WW1 the sense of loss and the harrowing reality of what war is came across in such depth. I loved the focus on language and the weight it can carry, It made me feel that words are in their own right living creatures. This is one of the few films that has not just entered my brain but is also in my heart. Please go and see this film whether you are a Tolkien fan or not, it is truly captivating.

One knows that any "biopic" can never stick 100% to the facts about the people it portrays; but one hopes it will stick close enough to be true to them. When you make a "biopic" I guess it's a bit like reconstructing a jigsaw but with fewer pieces than the original. So what you have to do is change some of the details on some of the pieces in the hope that when you view the whole thing the picture is more or less the same as the original. However, if you tamper with too many of the pieces the resulting picture won't be a true reflection. In my view this movie has erred too much to that end. This is a really well made movie with great acting. It's very watchable and moving. But, for me, spoilt by the too many changes effect that I just described. Here are just a few examples (NB they include spoilers). When Tolkien goes to university, there's a scene where he confronts his mates and says he's been "sent down" for not doing well enough in his Mods. This never happened. True, he didn't do too well, but he was never in any danger of being sent down. In the movie, the way he gets around this is by wooing the professor of linguistics, Joe Wright. At first the professor will have nothing to do with him, but is eventually won over and this ends with a scene where Tolkien starts to attend his lectures, having successfully transferred from Classics to Linguistics. In reality, Tolkien did indeed attend some of Wright's lectures... before the Mod exams just mentioned. His move to linguistics was at the suggestion of the Dean of Exeter College, and when he did transfer he was put under the care of a Canadian lecturer Kenneth Sissam, assistant to the Professor of English A.S. Napier. Wright's impact on Tolkien was great, but came much earlier on; and Tolkien's wooing of Wright never happened. Then there is his relationship with Edith Bratt, who he comes to love and marry. In the movie he makes a last moment declaration to her before going to war, and asks her to cut off her engagement to another man (and they kiss, of course). In fact they declared their love for each other in 1909, got engaged in 1913 and were married shortly before he went to war. Edith was briefly engaged to another, but Tolkien went to see her in Cheltenham to ask her to marry him (in 1913). The throwing of sugar lumps onto people's hats, as depicted in the film, did happen though (although not quite in the way illustrated in the movie). Father Francis' ban on Tolkien seeing Edith was, however, accurate. Now we come to the harrowing experience during the war where the sick young Tolkien desperately searches for his friend G.B. Smith in the trenches and out on the battlefield. In reality they did meet up a few times during the Somme campaign, but when Tolkien was taken sick with trench fever he was actually 12 miles behind the Lines at Beauval, was almost immediately hospitalised and removed even further from the front. The search for his friend simply never happened. I could quote other similar disparities. What emerges is a film that has deliberately over dramatised and over romanticised his story to the extent that what emerges is at best a "rose tinted" version of the real man. Tolkien did not like the idea of biographies, and would be turning in his grave at this mess I think. What really saddens me is that most people who see this movie won't read the excellent Humphrey Carpenter biography, and will take this movie version as the "truth".

"Tolkien" (2019 release from the UK; 111 min.) is a biopic of writer J. R. R. Tolkien. As the movie opens, we are told it is "The Somme, France, World War I", and Tolkien is in the trenches and in bad shape. We then go back in time to "Sarehole Mill, England", where the young Tolkien lives with his mum and brother. Mum tells the boys that they are moving to Birmingham, much to young Tolkien's chagrin. At school, young Tolkien has trouble fitting in, until one day he befriends 3 other boys and they decide to form a "fellowship"... At this point we're less than 15 min. Into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: this is the latest film from Finnish director Dome Karukoski, and his first English language film at that. Given the enormous book and film success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, it was inevitable that some day a biopic of J. R. R. Tolkien would be made. That day has now arrived, and, alas, this movie is a huge disappointment. From the opening scenes (Tolkien in WWI), we watch and watch, but at no point is there any emotional connection or investment that would make us care about Tolkien or any of the other characters. The "fellowship" comes across so wooden and ACTED, just bizarre. But wait, there is more. Lily Collins as Edith, Tolkien's love interest, appears 30 min. Into the movie. In conversation with the "fellowship", it becomes clear they are now all in their senior year of high school, worrying about university applications. So the characters are 17 yrs old. Except that Lily Collins is 30 in real life, and Nicholas Hoult (playing Tolkien) is 29, and they are utterly non-believable as HS kids. Then a bit later, Edith and Tolkien are on an afternoon tea-date and Tolkien starts speaking in an invented language, which prompts a discussion between the two of them about that which goes on and on, for minutes. What the heck is going on here? I get it: it's supposed to demonstrate the genius of Tolkien. Except that the scene simply doesn't work at all. But not all is lost: Collins is lovely as usual. And I did learn the proper pronunciation of Tolkien (as young Tolkien corrects a school teacher): it's pronounced "Tol-keen". But the bottom line is that this film doesn't do justice whatsoever to Tolkien the man/the writer/the genius, not by a mile or two. "Tolkien" opened this past weekend on 1,500 screens across the US, to so-so box office results. The (discount) Tuesday evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati was also attended so-so: all of 6 people, including myself. If you are a big fan of Tolkien's books and are eager to learn about the man himself, I'm afraid this movie is not going to be very informative, or enjoyable for that matter. Of course I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.