Being the fast food generation Yankee that I am, I have to say that the LOtR books were a little dry for me. Much British writing has alluded me. The film helped me to connect with the work in a way that I was unable to do by reading alone. Admittedly, this is a failing within myself, but a failing that the film has helped to bridge.

As a rather small person myself, I was happy to see that the Hobbits looked as I had always pictured them. Just little people. Not cute infantile looking caricatures, as many artists have portrayed them, or garden gnomes without the beards or hats. But that's just my own mental image.

I can add that, while Elijah Wood may nat have had many expressions, I thought he did grief quite well. My daughter and I both sniffled some when Frodo saw Gandalf fall after confronting the Balrog. He also emoted "innocence" rather well. And that was really the only thing that marked him as different than the men, elves, and dwarves of the fellowship, and the thing that made him uniquely qualified to be the ring bearer.

I also thought that it brought a more realistic emotive experience to what that sort of fear and pain would be like. Let's face it...the world of Harry Potter, while immensly entertaining, is not anything like what it would have to be were the pains and trials that this 11 year old boy suffered real.

I think the thing that disturbed me the most was that they took major liberties with the actual story. I don't recall Frodo talking to Aragorn before he left the fellowship. I thought that and other changes unnecessary, and perhaps even may have altered the overall vision of the author.

Fear was a great factor in many of Frodos actions (putting on the ring, running from the fellowship), and the film robbed Frodo of it. Without his flaws, he wasn't Frodo to me.