Tolkien (2019) review

Biopic of the younger days of fantasy writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) told in flashbacks from the trenches of World War I as he remembers his mother acting out stories, his developing obsession with language (and inventing his own), his courtship of Edith (Lily Collins) and his camaraderie with classmates that would help form the works that would make him world-famous: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.  All told it's a rather vanilla effort when not being overwrought ("changing the world through art!") or sidestepping how Mr. Tolkien's Catholicism played a huge part of his output (although there is a crucifix on the battlefield) - as I've said so many times, the internal world of a writer is where the real fright-fest begins.  There's nothing wrong with Hoult as the lead - he's got a stone-chiseled face and keeps himself in check - and Collins is charming: can you imagine actually having an argument with someone over Richard Wagner nowadays...?