It is about the early life of English professor and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), and The Silmarillion (1977) as well as notable academic works.

As young children being raised by a widowed mother, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and his brother Hilary receive help from a local priest, Father Francis, who must relocate them from their home to small apartments in Birmingham due to financial hardships.

Father Francis becomes the boys' legal guardian, and eventually finds a kindly rich woman who agrees to take them in, providing them with room and board while they continue their childhood education.

He wakes in a hospital weeks later with Edith by his side, to find that Smith and Gilson have been killed; Wiseman survived but is left traumatised and unable to speak.

On 21 November 2013, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Chernin Entertainment announced they were developing a biographical film about the English philologist and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, based on a screenplay by David Gleeson.

[4] The film was to touch on many themes in Tolkien's early life, including his friendships, love of languages, religion, and romance with Edith Bratt.

On 24 July 2017, Dome Karukoski was hired to direct the film with the screenplay from Gleeson and Stephen Beresford, which Chernin produced for Fox Searchlight to distribute.

[3] In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Poms and The Hustle, and was projected to gross $2–4 million from 1,425 theaters in its opening weekend.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Tolkien has the period trappings and strong performances of a worthy biopic, but lacks the imagination required to truly do its subject justice.

[25] Giving the film two out of five stars, Wendy Ide for The Observer commented "[a] decades-long trudge through Middle-earth would seem like a carefree skip through the park compared to this slog of a literary biopic.

"[28] David Sims, writing for The Atlantic, criticized the biopic as lacking imagination and subtlety, stating, "The result doesn't rise above the insight of a Wikipedia page.

"[29] Sheila O'Malley, reviewing the film for Roger Ebert.com, comments that having Tolkien literally "see[ing] dragons and what would eventually become the Eye of Sauron and the Nazgûl, unfurling across the hellscape of No-man's-Land ... is a very reductive approach to literature".

[30] On the other hand, Graeme Tuckett of Stuff gave the film four out of five stars and called it "A subtle, delicate biopic of The Lord of the Rings author.

"[31] Writing for The Plain Dealer, Chuck Yarborough graded it A, calling it "a wonderful piece of art" and "a magical film worthy of the wizardry of Gandalf himself.