I think it was a good decision for PJ to cut out those 17 years of waiting - it doesn't build suspense, and it's odd for a movie beginning. Can you imagine? "Here's Bilbo's birthday party, and a bunch of odd stuff with a ring. Then seventeen years later..." it just makes the watcher go, "hang on, why did it take so long?" and it's bit disorientating. Also, it really impresses upon the watcher a sense of urgency and helps to make clear the fact that this is serious business. I really liked how the movie did the first bit, no complaints at all, but the book has some neat quirks that I like, such as all the dialogue between Sam and Frodo and Pippin. "I don't keep water in my pockets!"

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Yes. Another difference between the movies and books are that Frodo moves to Bickland in a house that's out of the way so that he can leave quitely so nobody notices he's gone until he's out of the Shire.

"Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima! he cried, and knew not what he had spoken; for it seemed that another voice spoke through his, clear, untroubled by the foul air of the pit."-- TTT Shelob's Lair.

Frodo in some sense didn't speak this Elvish. It's sad to say this really doesn't display Frodo's knowledge of elvish like the scene with Gildor which was cut from the movies.

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