Ian Mckellen, Vig go Mortensen, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Dominic Monaghan, Bernard Hill, David Wenham.
Eowyn (Otto) is one of the most rounded female characters in Jackson's movie version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She loses her parents and her brother very early on, and then gets her heart broken by Aragorn (Mortensen). Her one bright spot in life is her uncle and surrogate father Theoden (Hill), King of Rohan. They have a subtle but deeply sympathetic relationship. At the core, they're both very sad characters who are watching the world around them fall apart and are deeply affected by it.
When Theoden returns from battle without Aragorn - the man Eowyn loves - all they share is a look across the room and she knows exactly what he's trying to tell her. The acting of both lends itself nicely to the relationship and it is another instant where the characters do so well together because they also do so well on their own - Theoden is an especially moving character as a overly compassionate but tired and aging man who rides into battle without the usual enthusiasm and false pride in war that marks the younger men. He's pessimistic but loving, irritated but gentle and he loves Eowyn more than anything. The only scene of Lord of the Rings that ever made me cry is during the last battle when Eowyn - disguised as a male warrior against her uncle's wishes - watches her uncle being crushed on the battlefield and rushes over to protect him from being torn apart by the enemy's beast. She succeeds, almost losing her arm, but it's too late for Theoden. As she takes off her helmet and he finally realizes who his defender is, he lays the back of his hand against her cheek and merely says "I know your face".
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