Given that this film is not endorsed by the writer’s
estate and did badly in cinemas I was still intrigued to see what take it took
on the formative years of one of the best known authors in the world. It is
easy to see why the movie didn’t take off as we live in a time where historical
characters are encouraged to speak with a modern tone and Tolkien resolutely and refreshingly stays in period. Its dialogue springs
from the screen but because it’s not talking about kejoree for breakfast or
something similarly Downtonesque it
means we have a movie which celebrates diversity of language and literature
which is always a hard sell. I’m not sure the means the filmmakers employed to
liven this up always works either though there are some very satisfying aspects to the movie.
