Stunning

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 2010)

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy comes to its epic conclusion in fine style: Frodo and Sam enter Mordor while the Battle of the Pelennor Fields begins, largely as a feint to draw Sauron's army away to allow the Ringbearer clear passage to Mount Doom. Following the Ring meeting its fate, all story lines are brought to their resolutions in a half hour or so of winding down.
Jackson's visualisation of what happens inside Mount Doom is faithful to, and improves upon, Tolkien's source - once again, Tolkien threw away one of his set pieces in less than a page. The one false note is Gollum's final expression - I would have expected agony rather than "Blimey! That's a bit of a surprise!" There are at least five separate end-pieces - the Fellowship reunited, Aragorn's coronation, the return to the Shire, the Grey Havens, and Sam's return home (it is possible to argue at least a couple more). The film could have been ended on any of these, and there are those who argue that it should have been. But although the film could have ended there, the story could not, and credit to Jackson for adding a half hour capstone to a ten hour film in order to properly resolve all that should have been resolved.
I feel this particularly strongly since this closing section contains two of my favourite moments. One is the moment in the tavern - the four Hobbits, traumatised by war, sit together in silence in stark contrast to the trivial carousing in the opposite bookend tavern scene in Fellowship. And the other is Frodo's final look back. If Elijah Wood never delivers another moment on screen as powerful as that one (and I'm sure he will), that is enough.
A towering achievement in all respects.