Could we have skipped Faramir? I can't believe I am advocating skipping things... but Faramir did not move Frodo along in the story.
Faramir, the way PJ has done this, allowed PJ to add a lot of the things that happen to Sam and Frodo, which in fact happen later in the book, but which for whatever reasons he decided not to put into ROTK. My only quibble is that he did not seem to establish well enough why Faramir changes his mind. I can accept changes from the book, but they have to make sense. Perhaps something was cut out to get the movie down to three hours, which explains PJ's version of Faramir better. Faramir will also be important in ROTR, when we see Denethor and what happens to him.
Other quibbles: wargs are most definitely giant wolves, not hyenas. And the oliphaunts were too freakin' huge. Someone got a little too carried away with that one.