TOLKIEN

TOLKIEN is a moving, absorbing drama about the early experiences that shaped J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and art. It celebrates family, friendship, faith, language, myth, storytelling, courage, and love. The film’s emotional power comes from Tolkien’s relationships with his mother, his friends, Edith, and the Catholic priest who becomes his guardian and father figure.

The movie’s strongest material is also its most challenging for younger viewers. World War I brings shootings, explosions, dying soldiers, corpses, gas attacks, and visions of fiery monsters amid the battlefield. The film also includes light profanity, drinking, and a passionate kiss.

If you are choosing for teenagers or adults, this is a richly rewarding film with strong family and Christian themes. Younger children may need a different choice because of the war content. For your family, the practical answer is: see it if your middle schoolers and older can handle those scenes.

Before he became the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien was a boy shaped by his mother’s stories, a student fascinated by language, a loyal friend, and a young man in love with Edith.

After his mother dies, Tolkien and his brother are placed under the guardianship of Father Francis Morgan. At school, Tolkien forms a fellowship with four friends. As World War I approaches, his love for Edith and his friendships face separation, while his growing passion for language and myth begins to shape the stories he will one day create.

Four stars means this is an excellent film, and the source review describes it as absorbing and high-class. It grabs the viewer from the opening battlefield scenes and builds a strong emotional climax through Tolkien’s family relationships, friendship, romance, and search for his missing companion.

Nicholas Hoult brings Tolkien’s love for language, art, myth, legend, and storytelling to life. Lily Collins gives an equally passionate performance as Edith. The flashback structure could have slowed the story, but the battlefield search effectively punctuates the account of Tolkien’s mother, guardian, friends, romance, and college mentor. The result is a moving period drama with an earned emotional center.

Tolkien strongly affirms family, friendship, courage, fellowship, love, and faith. It portrays a mother whose teaching and storytelling shape her children, a Catholic priest who cares for two orphans, friends who form a lasting fellowship, and a man whose love of language and myth becomes a gift to his children and to the world.

The film also presents Christianity and Catholicism positively, but it downplays the strength of Tolkien and Edith’s Catholic Christian faith. In particular, it suggests that Tolkien accepted separation from Edith because of concern for his schooling and career, while the source review says his Christian faith reportedly led him—painfully and reluctantly—to honor Father Francis Morgan’s request.

The film celebrates the journeys people take to prove themselves, what it means to love and be loved, and the courage required to remain faithful. It also shows Tolkien passing stories to his children, as his mother had done for him. In that love of family and fellowship, the film reflects the biblical truth that “a friend loves at all times” (Proverbs 17:17).

Tolkien is an absorbing, beautifully acted period drama that celebrates family, friendship, faith, language, art, and courage. Its war scenes require discernment for younger viewers, but teenagers and adults can find much to treasure. WORTH THE TRIP — MIDDLE SCHOOL AND UP.