Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2001: Ian Holm in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Ian Holm did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Bilbo Baggins in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Ian Holm's role in the original LOTR trilogy is technically an essential, though in a way minor role as technically the hero of the previous book to the trilogy. That of The Hobbit where Bilbo was front and center the whole time, despite what overblown adaptations will tell you. Ian Holm then has an interesting role here in that he really must tell you a story you haven't seen within his own work as Bilbo, at least when the film originally came out, well really we still didn't see it. Ian Holm was the protagonist of the previous story, in fact it seems just the right for the role of any lead hobbit, and it is no surprise that he had in fact played Frodo (here played by Elijah Wood) in the 1981 radio adaptation. Holm's casting in itself was something that was just right from the very outset. Of course even the best casting can occasionally disappoint, however that is most certainly not the case here. The richness of Holm's work really is evident from his early narration explaining the nature of hobbits in general. Holm delivers the words with real texture of appreciation and warmth in explaining the quaint life of the denizens of the Shire. This sentimentality though nicely balanced with an equally sincere irascibility as initially mistakes Gandalf (Ian McKellen) for another "well wisher" for Biblo's birthday party that essentially opens the film, as brushes off Gandalf befitting an elder man who doesn't like to suffer fools. Holm's initial work has this sort of wonderful balance between the bitter and the sweet.

This is as we see a rather endearing sense of joy in his greetings and interactions to the old friend of Gandalf. This giving a sense of their old adventure even though we don't see it beyond glimpse. This being even more evident as he regales the children with his conflict with some trolls that Holm illuminates with a proper zest of living the dreams of the youth. In this though Holm effectively realizes shades of darkness, and not just a slight grumpiness to unwelcome "friends". This in the moment of reflecting upon his age, even though he doesn't look it, Holm evokes both a melancholy of age but also a painful weight upon his existence. That weight of course being the one ring of power he has been using on and off since his journey in The Hobbit. This becoming more evident when Bilbo decides to leave the Shire to "retire", thought not before one final confrontation as Gandalf insists Bilbo leave the ring behind. Holm is fantastic in the scene and very much indicates towards the eventually much praised work of Andy Serkis as Gollum, the previous twisted owner of the ring by the ring. Holm is terrific in portraying this fixation, that is obviously weaker than it what we eventually see in Gollum, yet conveys well the obsession as an addiction. This in portraying his accusations towards Gandalf as a vicious irrational reaction of the moment. When snapped from this by Gandalf, Holm delivers such an honest moment of clarity in his poignant delivery of Bilbo plea for forgiveness. His greatest moment in the introductory section of the film though is actually a silent one, as he manages to leave the ring on the ground and walk out the door away from it. Holm brings for a moment this fierce frustration and angry in his face, before this moment of purging it himself to almost looking to his future. Holm makes it such natural moment, and essentially creates this humanity to this fantastical concept of the lure of the one ring. Holm makes a proper impression helping to establish the world of the film, but through textured character. His Bilbo not only grants sight of what the ring means, but we also get sense of who he is and really the nature of hobbits. There is also Bilbo's return later in the film, when Frodo and his group find refuge in the Elvish valley of Rivendell. There Bilbo finally seems his age, and there is a brief but special moment between he and Elijah Wood. There in just a brief reaction from Holm you see both a sense of acceptance, though not without a twinge of somberness in Holm's eyes, of his old age. We are also granted just the utmost tenderness in his reunion with Frodo evoking if for a few seconds the sense of the relationship of a surrogate father to his adopted son. Holm's final scene in the film coming shortly there after as he prepares Frodo for his adventure. A similar scene to his confrontation with Gandalf, though technically the most extreme moment of temptation is handled by a puppet, nonetheless Holm's expression of regret towards Frodo is heartbreaking as he conveys the intensity of this burden he's place upon his beloved nephew. Holm's character here is but a minor role in the scheme of the epic, yet alluding the strength of the film, he still leaves a striking impression.