10 Hilariously Awful Cry-Faces That Ruined Moving Scenes

10. Elijah Wood - LOTR: The Fellowship Of The Ring

During the memorable Mines Of Moria sequence in the first LOTR film, fans were forced to endure easily the most emotionally loaded moment in the entire epic trilogy. Sacrificing himself so that the Fellowship may advance further, Gandalf - unofficial leader, guide and generally useful guy to have around, plunges (seemingly) to his death on The Bridge of Khazad-dûm, which sends the Fellowship into a emotional tailspin. While most of the Fellowship opt for the stiff upper lip, the feckless, curly-haired Frodo (played by Elijah Wood) engages in his typical buffoonery. What's unfortunate about this is that so much about the scene does work, from Howard Shore's touching, lyrical score through Sir Ian McKellen's awesome command of "Fly you fools!" to Viggo Mortensen's quiet look of total devastation. It is an almost perfect scene. But then Wood's acting choices compromise these elements. Not only does he immediately scream out "NOOO!!!" with somewhat inevitable obviousness, but he surges towards the fallen wizard in such a wild, infantile fashion that one would think he was a little boy and that someone had just snatched away his favourite rattle. There is not a shred of nuance here; it's all big eyes and gaping mouth, which are captured in a tight, jarring close-up by Peter Jackson's camera. Maybe the effects of this moment would have been lessened by Wood portraying Frodo as a bit more competent in earlier scenes, but his character is all thumbs throughout Fellowship, tripping over his own feet and being both a physical and emotional burden on the group. Thus, this reaction to Gandalf's death only further highlighted that and unfortunately stymied the scene's considerable power.