LOTR Review - Toronto Eye  eye - 12.13.01   One Ring to rule the
mall   Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings thunders into
theatres    With the proliferation of ever more impressive
effects and slick, CGI-enhanced environments, the role of actors
in Hollywood action, fantasy and science-fiction movies has
rarely seemed more negligible. Yet one reason Peter Jackson's
The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment of the Lord of
the Rings trilogy, succeeds so well  is that there is such a
strong human presence -- even if many of the humans are
portraying pointy-eared elves, dwarves and hobbits.   The film
boasts an exceptionally strong cast, with Jackson eliciting
nuanced performances from Viggo Mortensen (the ranger Aragorn),
Sean Bean (the valiant but internally conflicted Boromir) and
Sir Ian McKellen (a vulnerable, slightly dotty Gandalf). Rather
than being stock heroic figures, the characters occupy various
positions on the sliding scale from good to evil and are imbued
with the moral ambiguity of, wel