Thursday: Review of TOLKIEN

I adored the new Tolkien biopic. It is truly a wonderful thing. Nicholas Hoult was as beautiful as a Greek statue as he showed us our protag, deep in his studies at Oxford. My heart was in my throat for most of the battle scenes. Despite my knowledge that he WOULD get back to Edith, I was genuinely worried for his safety in the trenches.

In his review of the film, Glenn Kenny from NYT wrote, "it doesn’t shy away from the conspicuously literary, treating the writer’s explorations of Wagner (sparked by his love interest and future wife Edith,  played by Lily Collins) and passion for philology (sparked by chats with the intimidating professor Joseph Wright, played by Derek Jacobi) with a commendable amount of detail." 


It was truly wonderful to see a portrayal of his early friendships, the boys who would become the inspiration for The Fellowship. It was a pure delight to see the intercutting of his imagination with the reality of grief and war that colors the trilogy.

Immediately, I saw the connection between Prof. Tolkien's obvious distaste for pollution and technological destruction of the environment. This connection is made when his mother is forced to move them to industrial Birmingham.  I settled in for a delicious ride of watching genius unfold. It was reassuring, as a writer, to SEE the obsession necessary to create not only "A" fantasy universe, but also THE FIRST fantasy realm. This film is an homage to the process of writing. I was just as thrilled to see his boyhood #2 pencil sketches of Smaug and Sauron, Shelob and Arwen on lined notebook paper-- as I was completely stunned by the visual treat of the ink from a fountain pen drying into the tooth of paper as his distinctive handwriting starts "In a hole in the ground..."

I do wish that we had got to see him meeting Lewis and forming The Inklings, (that time frame is reduced to a screen transition of "years later at Oxford") aside from my greedy desire for more of a good thing, it was a beautiful way to spend a couple of hours. I will watch it again I am certain. Dome Karukoski has given us the perfect prelude to a marathon of Jackson's masterpieces. Thank you.