Not a faithful adaption, but a loving one.

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2001)

Lord of the Rings Episode 4: A New Hope... excuse me, The Fellowship of the Ring... is pretty good. Maybe even great. But as a longtime fan of the book, I can't help feeling that it missed a beat. A lot of the changes are forgiveable: The linear storytelling, the additional scenes with Saruman, the emphasis on partial shots of the head to highlight eyes. Some of the changes are hard to understand: Why is Bilbo 111 years old and not 144? Why isn't Gandalf referred to as Gandalf the Grey? It's a major plot point that they just threw away.
At three hours, the movie felt too compact. At some point, they will release a 'director's cut' that adds the deleted scenes. You can tell they filmed more (such as Sam's picking up the horse at Bree, the one he says farewell to at Moria) or Gimli swearing allegiance to Galadriel. Indeed, a more faithful rendition would have seven movies (The Hobbit and the six books of LotR) rather than three. I have a feeling the trilogy will be better than any one movie. The movie jumps around to the action scenes and those of us who read the books probably followed the plot better.
But all this is nitpicking. When the movie works, it works well. The casting is good, perhaps great. Ian Holms makes Bilbo a sympathetic character. Sean Astin does really well with his Andy Richter part of Samwise Gamgee. Aragorn and Boromir do pretty well; Aragorn's big scenes come later. The wizards and the elves and the dwarfs all work. Gimli and Legolas are starting to develop. The women don't come off nearly as well; they seem to frail for adventuring. Still, Galadriel has a great moment. Merry and Pippin provide just the right amount of comic relief. Elijah Wood as Frodo has the pivotal role, and does okay with it. In the first book he doesn't have a lot to do except stand around looking confused and then resolute.
The cinematography is astonishingly good. If the book does better at interior monologues, background and narration, the movie does better at visualization. Saruman's Tower, the Mines of Moria, Rivendell, Galdalf's fireworks, the trolls, the balraug and more are all realized as good or better than the mind's eye in the book.
The people making The Fellowship of the Rings clearly love the book, and pour their heart into making an adaption that justifies bringing it to the large screen. I gave it a rating of 9 mostly because I'm a tough judge and the missing bits detracted.
Highly recommended, but read the books first.
(I hope they make a movie about the appendicis...)