James McAvoy as Bilbo Baggins?

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Lush

McAvoy is brilliant. I might never look at Bilbo the same way again... but I also might not care. I think it would be a great choice.

My dear Lush, how good-- how very good!-- it is to see you again. I do hope all is quite well with you.

So you think McAvoy would be worth choosing. I shall reconsider...

Hmmm. Bilbo Tumnus Baggins. Biltum Baggins. Bilbo Tumbaggins.

I'm just not feeling it, you know?

Biltum Bagnus. Tumbo Nussgins.

Augh. I just can't. And not for want of trying. Can he be made up to look like Bilian Holmgins, do you think?

[Holbytlass]

Originally Posted by lalaith

Whatever Bilbo's age, in the Hobbit he is an odd combination of a confirmed bachelor and a childlike figure - carried around on piggy-back by the dwarves when he gets tired and so on - so he should have an air of vulnerability.

A good movie to see of Mcavoy's acting both strong and vulnerablility is "I'm dancing inside" aka "Rory O'Shea was here".

[William Cloud Hicklin]

But it's essential to Bilbo's character that he is *middle-aged*: set in his ways, unwilling to adapt- the tension with *having* to adapt (in so many ways) is the mainspring of the story. A Bildungsroman with no Youth.

McAvoy is just too bloody young.

(Btw, 50 is 50. Hobbits don't mature any more slowly than we do).

[davem]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

But it's essential to Bilbo's character that he is *middle-aged*: set in his ways, unwilling to adapt- the tension with *having* to adapt (in so many ways) is the mainspring of the story. A Bildungsroman with no Youth.

As I noted earlier, 50 years is a term that echoes throughout Beowulf (Hrothgar has ruled Denmark for 50 years when Grendel first turns up, Grendel's Mother has also ruled her own realm for the same period, & possibly most significantly in Bilbo's case, after his return from Denmark Beowulf rules his people in prosperity for exactly 50 years before the Dragon is aroused & he must begin his journey to face it (let's recall it was Tolkien's original intention that Bilbo slay Smaug). Its been pointed up a few times that the whole of TH could be read as an ironic take on Beowulf - the three trolls a kind of tri-partite Grendel, Gollum in his underwater cave-realm equivalent to Grendel's Mother, & Smaug being, well, the Dragon.

However, the idea that a mainstream Hollywood movie, aimed at a 17 year old male demographic (the average US movie-goer, apparently), is going to have a 50 year old hero is out of the question. We got an 18 year-old Frodo, & we'll get a Bilbo who'll look about the same, 'cos that's what the audiences want.

[Lalaith]

Hobbits don't mature any more slowly than we do

Yes they do. They officially come of age at thirty-three, rather than 18 or twenty-one as we do. They live for around 120 years rather than four-score and ten.
So Bilbo is around 17 hobbit-years past coming of age. McEvoy is thirty. So I think that's not too bad at all, nowhere near as inappropriate as Eliljah Wood and co.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Yes they do. They officially come of age at thirty-three, rather than 18 or twenty-one as we do. They live for around 120 years rather than four-score and ten.

Have you been following this thread?

JRRT rather wryly postulated 33 as legal age because (in his professorial view) 21-year-old humans aren't remotely mature yet, and Hobbits are sensible enough to realize it.

(and hobbits typically only reach 100, not 120).

[Lalaith]

Have you been following this thread?

Why, what makes you think I haven't?

Look, I don't want to get caught up in a pedantic squabble, but a race who "typically" reach 100 are clearly maturing more slowly than humans.