This isn't to say that the movie was terrible, because it wasn't; none of the performances were awful, and the plot wasn't incoherent, it was just... bland and lifeless. You would think that a movie containing scenes of trench warfare and mass death would be moving, but somehow it's not. And it's not even that I require wild excitement in films; heck, one reason I love period dramas is because of the repressed emotion and carefully controlled behaviour, where small gestures- like the touching of fingertips- can convey so much that remains unspoken. Unfortunately, in Tolkien there doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on either above or below the surface.
Okay, I'm starting to stray off topic and this review is getting pretty long, so I'll finish it up in a second post with a discussion of the actual romantic relationship in the film- between Tolkien and his eventual wife Edith- the various other plot points, what I think worked, and why I think the film as a whole is, sadly, a failure.