Want to learn about the life of J.R.R. Tolkien? Try Dome Karukoski's quietly compelling film

I think by now we know, when we watch a bio-pic (about almost anyone at all) that facts are going to be fudged and events and characters telescoped into whatever needs the filmmakers think they face. So it is with the new movie about the life of fabled author, South African-born J.R.R. Tolkien, who was educated in and lived most of his life on British soil.

Prior to the actual screening of the film, as the audience at a preview event sat waiting, on the screen flashed the history of this man in maybe a dozen or so individual written installments. But then, of course, the movie that followed this did not always adhere to the historical timeline we were given just moments before that movie began screening.

Still, TOLKIEN, written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford and directed by Dome Karukoski (shown at right, of Tom of Finland fame), proves consistently interesting and, as it slowly moves along, finally pretty compelling. Tolkien's real-life tale is mostly quiet and rather sad, with he and his younger brother orphaned at a relatively early age and placed in the care of a Catholic priest. And though the movie is being billed as rather a love story, it's the relationship between Tolkien and his three much-loved school chums (below) that finally raises the movie's temperature and major emotions.

Tolkien is played -- quite well, too -- by Nicholas Hoult (above, left, and below), while those chums are essayed by Anthony Boyle (center left), Patrick Gibson (center right) and Tom Glynn-Carney (right), each of whom makes his character specific and as memorable as possible, given their limited screen time.

The love interest is played (as an adult) by Lily Collins (below), who is pretty but a bit wan here (she registers much more strongly in Netflix's new Ted Bundy movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile). The romance is shown to be important in Tolkien's life, yet the movie comes to strongest life in the scenes between Tolkien and his mates,

and in the marvelous entry of Derek Jacobi, below, right, as the Oxford professor who mentors our hero (according to what we see here, the two men seems to have mentored each other). Jacobi's lengthy and delicious monolog about trees proves the movie's consummate treat -- as intelligent and witty as it is germane to Tolkien and his work.

The movie is at its weakest whenever the filmmakers decide they must show us the connections (as below) between the man and his writing, with really pretty silly images of dragons and monsters (which of course will bring to mind The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings). Yes, World War I was awful and, yes, the man was influenced by it, but what we get here is obvious, clunky and unnecessary.

Visually, the movie is often quite verdant and lovely (as below), and Karukoski and his cinematographer (Lasse Frank Johannessen) also capture some images of the war that are startling and darkly memorable.

Overall, the slow pace of the film probably means it will appeal mostly to folk who don't mind this lack of action and of course to those fans of Peter Jackson's hit films who might like to know more about the life of the interesting guy who created the initial work.

In any case, Tolkien, via Fox Searchlight and running 112 minutes, opens nationwide tomorrow, Friday, May 10. To find the theater(s) nearest you, simply click here.

TOM OF FINLAND: Dome Karukoski's elegant, multi-faceted look at an unusual gay icon

Having pretty much come into early adulthood and gay/bisexual culture with the "artwork" of one, Tom of Finland, as a prominent guidepost, TrustMovies still, even now, knew nothing about the man who created the work. All that has changed with the theatrical opening of the movie that the country of Finland has submitted as a possibility for this year's Best Foreign Language Film -- something, I warrant, that Finland would never have done before or during the heyday of this artist's prominence. For much of his life, Tom, whose given name was actually Touko (according to the film, it became "Tom" due to his American publisher trying to make his work more marketable to the English-speaking crowd), would have been a near-pariah in his home country, had his work not been kept decidedly "under-cover."

Though part of Scandinavia, Finland was evidently not nearly as culturally, politically, socially or sexually forward-thinking as its Danish, Swedish and maybe Norwegian counterparts. TOM OF FINLAND -- as directed by Dome Karukoski (shown at left), with a screenplay by Aleksi Bardy and additional dialog (I am guessing for the portions set in the USA) by Mark Alton Brown -- turns out to be a surprisingly elegant, beautifully filmed combination of social, cultural, sexual and personal history that shows us the difficult times gays endured in Finland (and Germany) from the wartime 1940s through nearly the 1990s. By then gay culture had pretty much exploded throughout the western world -- with everything from its fashions to disco dancing to the idea of gay sex being not quite so bizarre and horrendous as formerly imagined -- seeping rather quickly into the progressive mainstream view.

As personified by the excellent actor Pekka Strang (shown above and below), Touko/Tom is brought to fine life as a young man, a middle-aged and increasing successful one, and finally the elderly gent who, having lost the love of his life even as his greatest successes occur, is left with memories. And his art.

To the film's credit, that "art" (a sample of which is shown below, and which I would call, as does Wikipedia, "erotic illustration") is never pushed forward as anything great. Instead it is shown to have a huge appeal to the gay population -- which it did and still does. With its emphasis on uniforms, leather, big bodies, and very large muscles (including those cocks), it strikes directly at certain accouterments favored by a portion, probably rather large, of the gay population.

And the drawings are indeed beautifully done: In black-and-white, they're well-composed and about as in-your-face as you could wish. The movie itself, however, is a lot more subtle that the work itself. It must be, in order to give us the fairly in-depth look at Touko and his life: first, with his sister and eventually with the young man who moves into the pair's apartment as a renter and soon becomes  Tom's lover, and finally a near-rapturous view -- so different from Finland -- of gay life in the USA during the burgeoning 1970s and then into the 80s, as AIDS begins to decimate the gay scene.

In America, we're introduced suddenly to some new characters -- Jack (Jacob Oftebro, above, left, who also doubles, I believe, as Tom's gorgeous fantasy man, below) and Doug (Seuman Sargent, above, right). Why soon becomes clear, while the how is handled with enough panache to grab our interest. One of the great strengths of Karuoski's direction (he also collaborated on the story) and Bardy's screenplay come via their refusal to hand us literally everything on a large and labeled platter. Instead they make us work, and the effort is invigorating.

Though their movie unveils in linear fashion, no dates are given anywhere in the film. Just figure it out. So we do. Neither are locations labeled. We're in Finland, then Germany, then America, then back to Finland. But thanks to an intelligent screenplay, the location is either quickly or eventually revealed.

Big events are handled with surprising restraint, as well. The death of a loved one comes and goes without the usual funeral scene, inclement weather and tears -- yet we feel it just as strongly. Notice a scene midway that deals, among others things, with yellow curtains and their meaning, then smile at how lovely is a later scene, featuring just a look at some fabric in a local shop.

The film is full of such moments, and it is all the richer and stronger for them. Oh, Tom of Finland is feel-good, all right. But we've also been given enough feel-bad, along with intelligent probing of place, culture and mores, that the finale seems more than appropriate and justified.

Performances are all you could wish for, too. From the excellent leading actor, to the fine supporting roles. That's Jessica Grabowsky, above and below, center, who plays Touko's sister, and Lauri Tilkanen, below, left, in the role of Veli, the lover. If there is one big coincidence to be faced down, that would be the fact the Veli, who shows up to rent a room in the pair's apartment, is the same fellow with whom Touko has earlier had sex in the local park. I suspect this is an invention of the screenwriter, but either way, it doesn't derail the film. (I usually allow one major coincidence per movie.)

From Kino Lorber, in Finnish and German with English subtitles and some dialog in English, and running 115 minutes, the movie opens Friday, October 13, in New York City at the Quad Cinema and the following Friday, October 20, in Los Angeles (at the Landmark NuArt), Berkeley (at the Landmark Shattuck Cinema) and San Francisco (at the Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinema). To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and scroll down.