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Tolkien

2019

Dome Karukoski

Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Genevieve O'Reilly, Colm Meaney ...

5.7

4,496

Drama. Romance. War J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), a love lorn soldier, draws from an epic life on his return from the Great War to create one of the greatest works of literature in "The Lord of the Rings".

	Author	Review
United States	Todd McCarthy The Hollywood Reporter	"A solid specialty item boosted by a strong lead turn"	POS
United States	Glenn Kenny The New York Times	"[It] teems with many on-the-nose moment (...) Nevertheless, 'Tolkien' manages several scenes of credible emotional delicacy.	NEU
United States	Andrew Barker Variety	[It] dilutes its considerable charms with hoary literary biopic conventions, and then risks strangling them entirely with its reductively literal takes on the vagaries of artistic inspiration."	NEG
United States	Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"[It] is anodyne enough that no one should be terribly upset by it, let alone deeply moved in any other way (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Sara Stewart New York Post	"[A] handsome if familiar-looking biopic (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Rosie Knight IGN	"A sweet, thoughtful, and often unabashedly romantic biopic (...) The cast is enjoyable to watch and the camaraderie between Hoult, Glynn-Carney, Boyle, and Gibson is obvious."	POS
United States	William Bibbiani The Wrap	"Laughable biopic indulges in infinite great-artist clichés (...) [It] hits so many familiar notes that it’s practically a cover song"	NEG
United States	Chris Nashawaty Entertainment Weekly	"At turns poignant and a bit too polite (...) Hoult brings a quiet, romantic intensity to the young Tolkien"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"I very much enjoyed the young Tolkien’s prewar ecstatic conversion to the world of philology at Oxford (...) Its earnestness and idealism are refreshing (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Kevin Maher The Times	"A film that marches through Tolkien’s childhood and early adult life with all the swagger and creative intensity of an undernourished Wikipedia page (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Geoffrey Macnab The Independent	"A sympathetic and sensitive portrait of the novelist as a young man, evolving his creative vision (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Liz Beardsworth Empire	"Karukoski’s entertaining film boasts flair and narrative ambition, but ultimately fails to completely break free of its traditional biopic frame (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
Canada	Sandy Schaefer Screen Rant	"An earnest and well-acted dramatization of the storyteller's experiences that's hindered by its adherence to the typical biopic framework (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU

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