Tolkien (2019)

My Review

“Tolkien” is a dry and dull film about the early life of author J. R. R. Tolkien that only the most die-hard fan of his work would appreciate. (Two of his books were “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”) Finnish director Dome Karukoski was in charge of the project, one of the few English language pictures he ever worked on. David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford wrote the uninspiring screenplay.

The cast seemed to only be “in it” for the paycheck. Nicholas Hoult robotically performed the title role, with Lily Collins as his girl friend, and co-stars Colm Meaney as Father Morgan and Derek Jacobi as a professor at Oxford. “Tolkien” was the first movie produced by Fox Searchlight Pictures after 20th Century Fox was purchased by The Walt Disney Company. It was a box office bomb, filmed across northwest England.