A perfect rendition of a book I've loved since childhood

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2002)

I approached the film with trepidation, afraid it simply might not live up to the pictures I'd had in my mind since childhood.I needn't have worried. My jaw hit the floor during the opening battle sequence, and stayed there until the final frame.
Impossible to mention everything, but top honours must go to Viggo Mortensen as the Aragorn I'd always imagined - wild, ferocious, slightly unearthly and yet unimpeacahably noble - and Elijah Wood as Frodo, who sidestepped any pitfalls attached to playing a stunted, hairy peasant and made Frodo's quest have all the high seriousness and quiet sacrifice it needs to have. Sometimes he looked a thousand years old.
There was barely a false note in the entire piece. The next two? I can't wait.