Tolkien

“My precious!”, who has never heard or repeated the words coming from the classic that is the Lord of the Rings? Well, I say this however but I must admit to not having seen the entire Saga. Don’t hit me! I saw extracts when I was younger which scared me and I didn’t want to take the experience any further. But here, it’s the biopic concerning a part of the life of the famous author J.R.R. Tolkien. Come take a closer look.

The story takes place in France during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. We follow our dear author into the trenches searching for a person. Sick, he loses consciousness from time to time plunging us into flashbacks. The first of these is a moment from his childhood in the English countryside where he lives with his mother and younger brother. The situation is not the best for a widowed woman with two sons. They have to move to town for work. Their mother, very ill, died. The orphans are taken care of and the school life of our future writer begins. He will meet those who will accompany him throughout his studies, will meet the one with whom he wants to share his life but above all, he works on the construction of a language with an entire world in which it would take its place.

Difficult to summarize such a story. Fear of saying too much, of not saying enough… Well, anyway! As I said at the beginning, I have not really seen or read this man’s work. And maybe that’s why I enjoyed this film. According to some reviews, fans might not like what Dome Karuskoski shows us on screen. For my part, I like the interest in languages ​​highlighted throughout the scenes. I also appreciate the use of cameras to show a different way of seeing that the character would have. The passion for folk tales that the young student has which he draws on to create his own universe. And of course, for the romantic that I am, the little touch of romance, between his loved one and him, can only delight me.

If we look back at reality, we realize that reality has largely been romanticized. They are not the first to do this nor the last. All you have to do is see the Greatest Showman or The Lady (I’ll do a profile on them later). The fact is that the project did not have much of any support from the writer’s family. Whatever the reason (the family does not have to justify themselves if they did not want a biopic on their loved one), putting together such a film without additional information is not easy. Even if several passages do not correspond to reality, including the moment of J.R.R Tolkien’s marriage, it is the film crew’s version of this life that the Tolkien film offers us.

Ultimately, whether or not this is a good film comes down to one’s artistic decision. I think an effort was made to respect the central man in this story. Largely fictionalized, we’re not going to lie, it remains a nice and beautiful film to watch. I’m not picky, that’s a fact, but the film had the merit of wanting to make me read the works of J.R.R Tolkien.

So, a little historical cookie?