Tolkien

In the same vein as Finding Neverland and especially Goodbye Christopher Robin, this formula look at the life of the Hobbit author loses its reasonably compelling story in a welter of safe biopic contrivances. Orphaned at 12 and raised by a guardian priest, language genius John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) joins a fellowship of other Oxford student outcasts, marries the love of his life (Lily Collins) and endures devastating horror as a First World War soldier - experiences that fire his immense imagination to write The Lord of the Rings. Inertly directed by Dome Karukoski in a similar way to his Tom of Finland memoir, the performances are fine, the chocolate-box British countryside sumptuously captured, the fantasy inserts effective enough and the typical period drama trappings all well appointed. What's missing is any real dynamism or more than superficial explorations into what made the celebrated British literary giant truly tick.