{"id":982,"date":"2019-02-12T22:05:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T03:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/chaosandoldnight\/?p=982"},"modified":"2019-02-12T23:48:38","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T04:48:38","slug":"982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/chaosandoldnight\/2019\/02\/982\/","title":{"rendered":"The new ‘Tolkien’ biopic: keeping an open mind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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The Lord of the Rings, two slipcase editions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fox Searchlight on Tuesday released the first official trailer from its upcoming film<\/a>, Tolkien,\u00a0<\/em>which hits theatres May 10. It stars Nicholas Hoult<\/a> as J.R.R. Tolkien and Lily Collins<\/a> as Edith Bratt, Mr. Tolkien\u2019s wife. I\u2019ve never heard of Ms. Collins, but I liked Mr. Hoult in Warm Bodies<\/em><\/a> (2013), Mad Max: Fury Road<\/em><\/a> (2015), and especially Dark Places<\/em><\/a> (2015), an underrated adaptation of the novel by Gillian Flynn.<\/p>\n

Another interesting casting choice is Colm Meaney<\/a> as Father Francis Morgan, the Catholic priest who raised Mr. Tolkien and his brother Hilary after they were orphaned.<\/p>\n

I know it will become very fashionable to prejudge the movie, to dismiss it, sight unseen, based on the trailer, which is all of fifty-five seconds. Some have already started, if what I\u2019ve seen on Facebook is any indication. I am tempted to join them. Because we all want to be with the cool kids, especially when their predictions of failure turn out to be true. We don\u2019t want to be the one that everyone points to and says, \u201cSee? We told you so!\u201d when it comes time to blast someone else\u2019s hard work.<\/p>\n

Plus, trying to capture, in a two-hour movie, a complicated figure such as J.R.R. Tolkien\u2014his life, beliefs, feelings, work, and everything in him and around him that went into the creation of his vast legendarium\u2014would be, I think, very tricky to pull off.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s tempting to join them. But I won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

J.R.R. Tolkien<\/h4>\n

Fans of Mr. Tolkien are drawn to him for a great many reasons. For some it\u2019s the scholarship, especially the linguistic scholarship. Others enjoy the characters or the songs and poems. Some simply like the story (which is the best reason. If the story is no good, then all the rest is for naught).<\/p>\n

I love him for all those reasons. But for me the attraction also is deeply personal. It was thanks to reading Tolkien that I returned to the Catholic Church after nearly a decade away. The journey that ended with me making a teary-eyed confession on Easter Sunday in 1992 began two years earlier with the words, \u201cIn a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.\u201d<\/p>\n