Top 15 Nicole Kidman performances

http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/top-15-nicole-kidman-perf ormances/

This past week I fell ill, a time which I seized to rewatch all of Kidman's work I haven't seen in years. I'm currently writing an analytical essay on The Hours, the film where Kidman gives her best work. After watching it at the beginning of the week, the viewing incepted this idea in my head about her filmography. After making it through her acclaimed and noticed films this past week, my ranking of her performances underwent a bit of change.

1. The Hours (my all-time favorite performance)

2. Moulin Rouge! (the best female performance of the last decade after her work in The Hours)

3. To Die For (her chilling, sugary, narcissistic breakthrough)

4. The Paperboy (one of the finest examples of method acting where Kidman takes a flat character and exacerbates Charlotte into a southern animal)

5. Rabbit Hole (grief is Kidman's specialty).

6. The Interpreter (her most underrated and unacknowledged work)

7. Eyes Wide Shut (Kidman hypnotizes us with her lines more than she does her voluptuous body)

8. The Others (uptight and on-edge, Kidman excels with Grace's melodramatic cards)

9. Birth (if any of these characters may exist in the real world, it's Ana and the emotion Kidman finds is stunning)

10. Margot at the Wedding (in one of the most unlikable heroines of the last decade, this may be the most calming performance Kidman has ever given)

11. Dogville (her most overrated performance, but Kidman still fills Grace with emotion even with the blandness of the character)

12. Hemingway and Gellhorn (portrays the feminist in a strong, compact manner)

13. Trespass (the shining star in an abyss of mistakes)

14. Stoker (this slinky and fearsome portrayal may stay in my top 10 for Best Supporting Actress if the year doesn't shape up soon)

15. Cold Mountain (hard to digest on a first glance, but Kidman shows her character's growth subtly until she's given great material to work with in the finale)

Look at that list and try to pick out two characters that are inherently similar...you won't find it. In my personal awards, I could reward her for the first nine on this list as the best of the year. She has enough momentum behind all her characters there to have nine wins, but sadly snatches only three wins: The Hours, Moulin Rouge!, and Eyes Wide Shut. I understand how controversial of an actress she is, some of her choices have no chance whatsoever to succeed, but what other actress can conceive dramatic emotion like she can?

Feel the Films: A Blog by RCS - http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/