A feast for the eyes, a banquet for the heart

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2001)

They can stop making movies after this; everything a film can be has been accomplished here. Sure, I've read the book (thirteen times, actually) and I had great qualms about the monumental effort of bringing such an epic to celluloid, especially a book which has touched so many so deeply and on such profound levels.
The film is not "perfect" (whatever that means), but it is splendid. The visuals (a hearty cheer for Alan Lee, the film's conceptual designer) are stunning, the pace breathtaking, the characterizations warm and surprisingly humorous. There are depths in the book that the movie cannot reach, of course, given the constraints of time, but there are actually some ways in which the movie tops the book, in that Jackson has the ability to show us many things that Tolkien could only have his characters relate at second- or third-hand.
I feel the same way I feel after Thanksgiving, as though I may never have to eat again. This feeling will pass as well, I'm sure, but I have never been so replete from watching a movie. Deeply satisfying, beautiful, lovingly made. Go see it, you won't be sorry.