Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Tolkien (2019)

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-12-2019, 09:38 PM:

Contains plot spoilers.

A biopic of J.R.R. Tolkien, from the death of his father to when he starts to write The Hobbit.

The bulk of the movie is told as flashbacks while Tolkien is in the trenches at The Somme, covering his impoverished childhood in Birmingham, scholarship education at a posh private school and Oxford, and his relationships with three close friends (two of whom were killed in WWI) and his future wife. A brief section at the end of the movie deals with his life as a professor after the war, and the film ends as he starts work on the novels for which he will eventually become a household name.

This is arthouse stuff, pure and simple. Lord of the Rings geeks who are expecting the film to deal with the creative process of writing the books themselves will be disappointed. I was very impressed with the art direction, lighting and cinematography: it was a pretty dark movie overall (lots of interior scenes in Edwardian rooms lit only by candle and gas light), but with a huge amount of detail: close-ups revealed the grain structure of costume fabrics, wallpaper, pores on skin, etc. The Somme battle scenes, with some very sparing CGI inserted to indicate where Tolkien was getting the inspiration for some of his fictional monsters, were also very well done.

But there was something missing in the writing, acting, and direction. The pace was slow, delivery stilted, there were frequent pauses that didn't make sense, scenes where Nicholas Hault and Lily Collins didn't appear to make eye contact where they should have done (indicating either an acting or editing fail). In short, it was one of those two-hour movies that felt like a three-hour one.

My wife, however, loved it (she is a huge fan of C.S. Lewis, who was a friend of Tolkien's which is why she wanted to see it), and even suggested that there could be a sequel. When I pointed out that this would have to consist of two hours of Tolkien sitting at his desk, scribbling away, this didn't go down well!

We saw it at the Studio Movie Grill (Screen 4) in Redlands, CA, our first time there since they took it over from Krikorian. Ironically, our last time in that building was to see one of the Peter Jackson Hobbit films. They have totally gutted the place, and it is now a very nice theater compared to the 1980s timewarp it used to be. Projection and sound were pretty good overall (it was 2K, on a Series 1 Christie, which I guess they inherited from Krikorian), but there was a contaminant either in the lens or the light engine that put a large, black, out-of-focus blob on the screen, which was a bit irritating in lighter shots (of which, thankfully, there were very few in this film). Still, that's a minor complaint and the essentials were all OK: a crisp, bright picture, properly masked, and with clear audio at a good level. The auditorium was clean and the staff super helpful and friendly.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 06-25-2019, 11:10 PM:

I agree, the pacing felt way off but it also felt like it was missing character plot information, as if to suggest there was a longer cut, but was whittled down to a much more streamlined story. Technically though, the cinematography was gorgeous.