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Tolkien has the period trappings and strong performances of a worthy biopic, but lacks the imagination required to truly do its subject justice. Read critic reviews
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Tolkien: Trailer 2
Tolkien: Trailer 1
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Movie Info
As a young student, J.R.R. Tolkien finds love, friendship and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts. Their brotherhood soon strengthens as Tolkien weathers the storm of a tumultuous courtship with Edith Bratt and the outbreak of World War I. These early life experiences later inspire the budding author to write the classic fantasy novels "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings."
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Rating: PG-13 (Some Sequences of War Violence)
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Genre: Biography, History, Drama
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Original Language: English
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Director: Dome Karukoski
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Producer: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, David Ready, Kris Thykier
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Writer: David Gleeson, Stephen Beresford
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Release Date (Theaters): wide
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $4.5M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Fox Searchlight
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Production Co: Chernin Entertainment
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Critic Reviews for Tolkien
Audience Reviews for Tolkien
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Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins lead the cast in the J.R.R. Tolkien biopic Tolkien. The film looks at the formative years of J.R.R. Tolkien's life; growing up in an orphanage and making lasting friendships that would inspire him. Both Hoult and Collins give strong performances, and director Dome Karukoski uses an interesting visual style that makes allusions to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings mythology. Still, the plot is pretty formulaic and doesn't hold that many surprises. Yet despite a few weaknesses, Tolkien is a compelling look at the man behind one on the most influential novels of the twentieth century.
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I'll admit I had some interest when I heard that a Tolkien biopic was in the works, but now that I've actually seen it, I'm very unsure about who was supposed to want this movie? It's just an unbearably clichéd biopic that makes sure it ticks all the boxes a biopic for some reason must. I don't understand how this formula gets forced in to the real-life story of every person who has ever lived a time that was put to screenplay. It's so boring, and it's so done. Who was crying out for a movie that examined famed author J. R. R. Tolkien when he... went from mildly unpopular at fancy pants school, to mildly popular at fancy pants school? Not when he was writing the most famous fantasy series of all time. Not when he was at war (or at least not more than about a cumulative 6 minutes of flashforwards at war). Not his relationship with C. S. Lewis. Not even about going to codebreaking school. Nope, a young Tolkien whose not very likeable and rather lofty for someone who supposedly comes from such a poor background. It does touch on some references to his future writing, adding a little bit of a fantastical element, but it's so afraid of this, its best element, that really only seems to imply that old mate Jirt wouldn't have come up with a single idea for Lord of the Rings unless some sort of external stimulus for it fell in his lap. Another biopic cliché.
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