Natalie Portman would have made a better Hannah

Natalie Portman is Jewish and was born in Israel, and although I normally would say that I don't care one way or the other what the religion or cultural background is of a person acting a part, I do think in this case, she might have given this part a more authentic rendering of the character. Or she might have brought more emotional realism to her characterization, something more. I thought the same you did about her being better in this part.

I do like Kirsten Dunst's performance here, and I also liked her in Marie Antoinette, another film where a lot of people think her character should have been played by someone else.

I think it's that she is so often very inconsistent or uneven in her characterizations. She seems to lose the accents and go in and out of character in many parts she plays. It's distracting.

I just cringed the whole way through this film because Kirsten Dunst just didn't fill this role... Kirsten can act, but in this film, I don't know why, she's just not convincing.

I'm not too sure about what Natalie Portman would've been like because I've only seen 2 or 3 films with her in it but they were very convincing and she can portray quite different roles.

Maybe Kirsten didn't understand the role fully or couldn't embrace it, but yeah, there definitely should've been someone else.

Another reason I found her and Brittany Murphys' presences unnerving was it was meant to be a sensitive film and these two teen-sensations just popped up and it made me kind of go .... hmm.... I don't know that they deserved this film.

Is everyone joking right now?! I thought she did amazing, she grabbed me in from the start. Natalie Portman is a great actress, and can defiantly do a great job in this film. But Kristen is spectacular and can do any job she is given

i'm not a big fan of kirsten dunst, but i actually liked her in this movie!

Sorry, I have to disagree with you here. I really cannot imagine Natalie Portman in a role like this. Kristen Dunst did a good job I feel, perhaps it's because I was so young when I saw this movie and was blown away by it. I have a little Jewish and gypsy heritage myself, and on both sides, my family has experienced many losses of family members in WW2, in death camps. Thanks to this movie I really got into my family history and became very aware of my roots. I was about 9-10 years old when my mother showed me this movie (I'm 22) and it made such a huge impression on me. Perhaps because the girls were not far away from my age it was easy to relate. Anyway, I really can't imagine Natalie Portman playing Hannah, just because someone is Jewish doesn't mean they'd be able to pull it off- not all German people can pull off a Nazi role either, or not all Italian people can pull off playing Julius Caesar. Although ever since I saw the 1997 version of Lolita, I can't help looking at Kirsten Dunst and confuse her with Dominique Swain sometimes.