One knows that any "biopic" can never stick 100% to the facts about the people it portrays; but one hopes it will stick close enough to be true to them. When you make a "biopic" I guess it's a bit like reconstructing a jigsaw but with fewer pieces than the original. So what you have to do is change some of the details on some of the pieces in the hope that when you view the whole thing the picture is more or less the same as the original. However, if you tamper with too many of the pieces the resulting picture won't be a true reflection. In my view this movie has erred too much to that end. This is a really well made movie with great acting. It's very watchable and moving. But, for me, spoilt by the too many changes effect that I just described. Here are just a few examples (NB they include spoilers).
When Tolkien goes to university, there's a scene where he confronts his mates and says he's been "sent down" for not doing well enough in his Mods. This never happened. True, he didn't do too well, but he was never in any danger of being sent down.
In the movie, the way he gets around this is by wooing the professor of linguistics, Joe Wright. At first the professor will have nothing to do with him, but is eventually won over and this ends with a scene where Tolkien starts to attend his lectures, having successfully transferred from Classics to Linguistics. In reality, Tolkien did indeed attend some of Wright's lectures... before the Mod exams just mentioned. His move to linguistics was at the suggestion of the Dean of Exeter College, and when he did transfer he was put under the care of a Canadian lecturer Kenneth Sissam, assistant to the Professor of English A.S. Napier. Wright's impact on Tolkien was great, but came much earlier on; and Tolkien's wooing of Wright never happened.
Then there is his relationship with Edith Bratt, who he comes to love and marry. In the movie he makes a last moment declaration to her before going to war, and asks her to cut off her engagement to another man (and they kiss, of course). In fact they declared their love for each other in 1909, got engaged in 1913 and were married shortly before he went to war. Edith was briefly engaged to another, but Tolkien went to see her in Cheltenham to ask her to marry him (in 1913). The throwing of sugar lumps onto people's hats, as depicted in the film, did happen though (although not quite in the way illustrated in the movie). Father Francis' ban on Tolkien seeing Edith was, however, accurate.
Now we come to the harrowing experience during the war where the sick young Tolkien desperately searches for his friend G.B. Smith in the trenches and out on the battlefield. In reality they did meet up a few times during the Somme campaign, but when Tolkien was taken sick with trench fever he was actually 12 miles behind the Lines at Beauval, was almost immediately hospitalised and removed even further from the front. The search for his friend simply never happened.
I could quote other similar disparities. What emerges is a film that has deliberately over dramatised and over romanticised his story to the extent that what emerges is at best a "rose tinted" version of the real man. Tolkien did not like the idea of biographies, and would be turning in his grave at this mess I think. What really saddens me is that most people who see this movie won't read the excellent Humphrey Carpenter biography, and will take this movie version as the "truth".
In the movie, the way he gets around this is by wooing the professor of linguistics, Joe Wright. At first the professor will have nothing to do with him, but is eventually won over and this ends with a scene where Tolkien starts to attend his lectures, having successfully transferred from Classics to Linguistics. In reality, Tolkien did indeed attend some of Wright's lectures... before the Mod exams just mentioned. His move to linguistics was at the suggestion of the Dean of Exeter College, and when he did transfer he was put under the care of a Canadian lecturer Kenneth Sissam, assistant to the Professor of English A.S. Napier. Wright's impact on Tolkien was great, but came much earlier on; and Tolkien's wooing of Wright never happened.
Then there is his relationship with Edith Bratt, who he comes to love and marry. In the movie he makes a last moment declaration to her before going to war, and asks her to cut off her engagement to another man (and they kiss, of course). In fact they declared their love for each other in 1909, got engaged in 1913 and were married shortly before he went to war. Edith was briefly engaged to another, but Tolkien went to see her in Cheltenham to ask her to marry him (in 1913). The throwing of sugar lumps onto people's hats, as depicted in the film, did happen though (although not quite in the way illustrated in the movie). Father Francis' ban on Tolkien seeing Edith was, however, accurate.
Now we come to the harrowing experience during the war where the sick young Tolkien desperately searches for his friend G.B. Smith in the trenches and out on the battlefield. In reality they did meet up a few times during the Somme campaign, but when Tolkien was taken sick with trench fever he was actually 12 miles behind the Lines at Beauval, was almost immediately hospitalised and removed even further from the front. The search for his friend simply never happened.
I could quote other similar disparities. What emerges is a film that has deliberately over dramatised and over romanticised his story to the extent that what emerges is at best a "rose tinted" version of the real man. Tolkien did not like the idea of biographies, and would be turning in his grave at this mess I think. What really saddens me is that most people who see this movie won't read the excellent Humphrey Carpenter biography, and will take this movie version as the "truth".