Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Tolkien Blu-ray Movie Review

Presumably there's no extended edition forthcoming.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 9, 2019

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien has one of the most recognizable names, or at least surnames, in the entire annals of literature, and there may be some fans of his most noted works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, who may feel like that surname sounds very much like a character or location in one of those very works. Despite the ubiquitous recognition of Tolkien’s name, how many fans really know all that much about the man? Saliently, how many fans could correctly identify what the “J.R.R.” stands for? (In a similar fashion, and indeed with regard to another author famous for creating a labyrinthine world of his own populated with all sorts of outlandish creatures, how many folks could correctly identify what the “R.R.” in the creator of Game of Thrones stands for?)* That lack of true intimate knowledge about Tolkien may provide ample reason for a biographical film about the famed author, but kind of like Tolkien’s work themselves, Tolkien seems to harken back to a distant age, perhaps in this particular example not some distant, mist enshrouded Middle Earth, but Hollywood’s Golden Era. For Tolkien is a big, glossy, and perhaps somewhat fusty account of Tolkien’s life. It’s often sumptuously beautiful in some of its recreations of a now arcane English way of life, and it’s equally harrowing in its depiction of the horrors Tolkien witnessed during his World War I experiences, but despite some obvious attempts (and arguably a few successes) in connecting emotionally with both its focal subject and the ostensible audience, there’s the same distancing, almost mythologizing, aspect to this biography that often attends films about vaunted historical figures.

Even those without a ton of knowledge about Tolkien may be passingly aware of what an impact the so-called “Great War” had on him, and the conflict provides an anchor of sorts for this tale, one that offers Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) appearing perhaps slightly unbalanced from the trench warfare in which he finds himself. The film manages to deliver an almost picayune amount of information via an opening montage of sorts that sees a perhaps seriously ill Tolkein drifting in and out of memory as he lies, sick, in a blood soaked World War I ditch. That allows Tolkien to virtually elide years in the author’s early life, years that saw him and his brother Hilary (played by Guillermo Bedward and James MacCallum at different ages) orphaned and placed under the care of the imperious if well meaning Father Francis Morgan (Colm Meaney).

A bit of class consciousness intrudes once Tolkien (played as a youth by Harry Gilby) gets into a tony boarding school, but perhaps predictably, early skirmishes turn into lasting friendships, with an aggregation dubbed The Tea Club and Barrovian Society resulting. The film does at least an adequate job of depicting the camaraderie between Tolkien and three of his best buddies, but it also wants to deal with Tolkien’s nascent interest in language (including his own invented language) and a budding romance with a beautiful young woman named Edith Bratt (Lily Collins). All of this plot material has to compete with the film’s repeated returns to Tolkien surviving World War I, with a somewhat lurching ambience arguably interrupting momentum.

As I watched Tolkien, I frankly wished I knew more about the real story of the man, as I frankly wondered how and what was subject to the seemingly unavoidable “fictionalization” that seems to accrue to this kind of biographical film. While some aspects, notably the friendship between Tolkien and Geoffrey (Anthony Boyle), Christopher (Tom Glynn-Carney), and Robert (Patrick Gibson) seems to be at least generally accurate from what I’ve read in preparation for writing this review, I’m not so sure about other aspects, including an interesting but perhaps needlessly melodramatic subplot featuring Tolkien’s World War I acolyte, Sam Hodges (Craig Roberts). The film’s representation of the love story between Tolkien and Edith is sweet, but again has certain melodramatic aspects added, especially when Father Morgan puts his foot down and insists Tolkien study his books rather than Edith.

If Tolkien is unabashedly old fashioned, even if some of its depictions of wartime are certainly more graphic than would have been allowed back in the heyday of the Hollywood studio system, it does ultimately manage to deliver some real emotion, even if some of the lumps in the throat may feel like they got there via pretty obvious manipulation. Hoult is very appealing throughout the film, as is Collins, and the supporting cast, which includes Derek Jacobi as a mentor, is colorful and distinctive.

*Raymond Richard

Tolkien Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tolkien is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. For such a relatively high profile picture (even if it didn't do much at the box office), I'm frankly surprised that I wasn't able to dredge up much if any technical data on the shoot, but as usual I'm presuming a digitally captured source was finished at a 2K DI (I always welcome authoritative data on subjects like this, so if anyone has it, private message me and I can update the review). This is another beautiful looking Blu-ray from Fox, one that preserves some of the almost amber tones that cinematographer Lasse Frank Johannessen and director Dome Karukoski favor in some of the British material when Tolkien is growing up. The wartime sequences are often an interesting study in lots of cool slate grays with almost spooky pops of blotches of rust colored blood. Detail levels are excellent throughout the presentation,

Tolkien Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tolkein's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gains some expected oomph from the battle scenes, where gunfire and explosions and even the hiss of poison gas dot the sound field (I kind of wondered what an Atmos track might have done for the battle scenes in particular). Other scenes, while probably not as showy, also have some nice surround activity, including little moments like a rugby match that initially gets Tolkien into trouble at school but which provides him an entré into a kind of closed "boys' club" . The film has quite a bit of outdoor material (even apart from the World War I trench sequences), and ambient environmental sounds regularly dot the side and rear channels. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.

Tolkien Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 12:37) feature optional audio commentary by Dome Karukoski.


• First Look (1080p; 12:59) features Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins hosting a standard issue promotional piece.


• Audio Commentary by Dome Karukoski


• Gallery (1080p; 1:30) offers either an Auto Advance or a Manual Advance option. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.

Tolkien Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tolkien does manage to touch the heart as it gives an at times fairly surface deep overview of this iconic author's life. The film may best be approached as an introduction rather than a final statement, and as such it suffices rather well, with some impressive performances and a handsome if occasionally harrowing production design. Technical merits are solid, and Tolkien comes Recommended.