Tolkien

Tolkien

Starring Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney, Derek Jacobi

Directed by Dome Karukoski

For me, movies fall into three broad categories - memorable because they're good, memorable because they're bad, and wholly unmemorable.  Those that are memorable because they're good are the upper echelon of cinema for me, movies that I can remember whole scenes from even after watching it one time.  Conversely, those that are memorable because they're bad are the lower criterion, movies that I can also remember whole scenes from even after watching it one time - but not in a good way.  Yet I'd rather have films be memorable because they're either good or bad than the third - wholly unmemorable.  Those are the films that fall in the middle, who offer nothing more than just a waste of time, and ones that I can't even remember seeing.  You'd expect a biopic about one of the world's most famous and intellectual fantasy writers would fall on the memorable because they're good category, but that's not the case.  "Tolkien," with great sadness, falls into the "wholly unmemorable" category for me.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien crafted some of the most unique, awe-inspiring, and absolutely stunning fantasy novels ever, and even created his own language for it.  The man was a genius in every sense of the word, and also a visionary way before his time, as he transported millions of eager readers into the world of Middle Earth and the unique beings that reside there, so it's pretty obvious that a biopic would be made of the man who infused his deeply held religious beliefs with his unique brain and special storytelling ability.  However, maybe it's because the man was so great that a biopic couldn't do him justice, as "Tolkien" dragged along at a slug's pace, not offering anything remotely comparable to the greatness that was the man - even his family and his estate have distanced themselves from this project, and didn't endorse it in any way.

The film attempts to show how Tolkien's real life mirrored his works, but it just turns into random scenes tossed together for the sake of a narrative.  We go back and forth (and forward) in time from when Tolkien was a young boy who became an orphan, to his late high school and early college days where he befriends three fellows who are reminiscent of the fellowship between Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin - and then the future, where Tolkien is in the trenches of the Battle of the Somme, where he hallucinates the evil characters that would make their way to his novels.  Again, you'd expect these events to instill some sort of wonder or magic, but it's just "ho-hum" at best.

Nicholas Hoult does an admirable job portraying Tolkien's older years, as does Harry Gilby during his younger phase, but again neither incite anything remotely interesting.  His relationship with fellow orphan Edith Bratt (played by Lily Collins) is equally uninspiring, with the exception of two mildly thought-provoking scenes - one involving their debate about speech and language, and the other as they entertained themselves during a play.  The best parts of the film come when Tolkien is gathered around his fellows - his Fellowship - including Geoffrey (Anthony Boyle), Robert (Patrick Gibson), and Christopher (Tom Glynn-Carney), as they show what true friendship is and share a playful banter that's both heartwarming and wildly intelligent - but even those moments fall flat compared to Tolkien's greatness.

Perhaps I put too much expectations, but a biopic about the most intellectual, creative writer ever, you'd expect something magical to it - but instead it becomes ordinary, dull, and - worst of all - unmemorable.

The Score: C-