5 Best Film Performances of the 21st Century

[Hides His Eyes]

I can't sleep and I've been thinking about films. I'm wondering what all you escapists think are the top five performances of the 21st century so far. I mean specifically the actor's performance rather than the character or the overall film.

Although obviously I might have forgotten some, I'm gonna go with:

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood
Ralph Fiennes in Red Dragon
Christian Bale in The Fighter

With regards to the first one, anyone who thinks Ledger's Joker performance was overrated and put on a pedestal because he died shortly afterwards needs to take off their fashionably cynical shades and watch the film again, because it's just simply brilliant.

Hmm. Just realised at least three of these have mental problems of some kind and one is a drug addict. I guess it's hard to make a great performance out of clean, normal kind of character.

 

[Tanakh]

Wall-e should be there mate.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

Wall-e should be there mate.

Good point. He's certainly in the top 10.

 

[emeraldrafael]

really? 11 years into the century and we're already doing this.

...

Alright.

Daniel Radcliffe in the Harry Potters
Asa Butterfield in The Boy in Striped Pajamas
Delphine Chanéac in Splice
Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionare
Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men

 

[Terminate421]

How is DiCapprio not on that list? (I know it was just Inception that made him more awesome but he played Tom Cobb REALLY well.)

 

[ResonanceSD]

Daniel Craig's Bond
Heath Ledger's Joker
Leo Di Caprio in Inception
Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino
That vietnamese H'mong kid - Gran Torino

 

[Yosato]

Alan Rickman in the Harry Potter franchise
Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man
Ian McKellen in Lord of the Rings

 

[Hides His Eyes]

How is DiCapprio not on that list? (I know it was just Inception that made him more awesome but he played Tom Cobb REALLY well.)

For me, the actors' performances, and the characters for that matter, are not really what Inception is about. It's one of the best films of the century so far, definitely, but more on the strength of its premise and story.

Forgot about Eastwood in Gran Torino, another great one.

 

[BristolBerserker]

I agree about Heath Ledgers performance in The Dark Knight. I honestly think it is my favourite performance in any film ever (in my opinion, i don't care about yours). It is tragic about his death but at least he went out on a high and people will remember that. Unlike shit actors who are still alive.

 

[Dango]

In no particular order...

Seam Astin as Samwise Gamgee- Lord of the Rings
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins- Lord of the Rings
Ian Mckellen as Gandalf- Lord of the Rings
Andy Serkis as Gollum- Lord of the Rings
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn- Lord of the Rings

 

[Hides His Eyes]

In no particular order...

Seam Astin as Samwise Gamgee- Lord of the Rings
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins- Lord of the Rings
Ian Mckellen as Gandalf- Lord of the Rings
Andy Serkis as Gollum- Lord of the Rings
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn- Lord of the Rings

Seriously? Sure you don't just really, really like LotR?

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

With regards to the first one, anyone who thinks Ledger's Joker performance was overrated and put on a pedestal because he died shortly afterwards needs to take off their fashionably cynical shades and watch the film again, because it's just simply brilliant.

I'd say a little from both columns on that one. Was it a great performance? Hell yes, and anyone who says it was bad knows nothing about acting. Was it Oscar worthy? Again, yes. Is it overrated? A little bit, yeah (it has, in all honesty, been blown out of proportion by a lot of people). One has to admit that in fond remembrance of those who have left us, we do tend to escalate things a bit.

OT: I would go with

Daniel Day-Lewis: There Will Be Blood (I have a feeling that one is gonna crop up a lot)
Sharlto Copely: District 9
Ellen Burstyn: Requiem for a Dream
Sam Rockwell: Moon (why, oh WHY, did he not get an Oscar nomination?!?)

Sadly my favorite performance, Edward Norton in American History X, misses the 21st century by 2 years, so I'll end it with the ever underrated Toby Jones as Truman Capote in Infamous.

 

[Terminate421]

How is DiCapprio not on that list? (I know it was just Inception that made him more awesome but he played Tom Cobb REALLY well.)

For me, the actors' performances, and the characters for that matter, are not really what Inception is about. It's one of the best films of the century so far, definitely, but more on the strength of its premise and story.

Forgot about Eastwood in Gran Torino, another great one.

Although you wouldn't believe this one,

Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Johnny Depp is always going to fit this role perfectly, he provides a narcisistic, charasmatic, and yet charming pirate who always has a plan. He does change through out the series, always ending as the good guy with what he's got. Just like a pirate trys to be.

 

[Spydercake]

Hmm

Robert D. In Sherlock Holmes
Mike Myers in Shrek
Adam Sandler in Click
Diane Lane in Untraceable
Liam Neeson in Taken

Man these were hard to choose

 

[Stall]

Really? 11 years into the century and we are already doing this? And it's made even worse by the fact that all these lists contain almost nothing but major hollywood movies. I haven't watched many independent or foriegn films myself, but it really shows something about the breadth of your tastes when all your best performances are from American, major motion pictures. At least try to have some logic and say something like "best performances of the decade" or something...

 

[Rooster893]

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Alan Rickman in the Harry Potter series
Jim Carrey in Yes Man!
Colin Firth in The King's Speech
Tom Hanks in Toy Story

 

[DarkRyter]

Sammy Donovan, "The Dolphin's Cry" (2035)
Africanequa Jones, "Bitches 3: Revenge of the Bitches" (2065)
Cyborg Christopher Walken, "Memoirs of WW5" (2089)
Tara Strong, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the Movie" (2016)
Mickey Rourke, "Iron Man 2" (2010)

 

[Hides His Eyes]

With regards to the first one, anyone who thinks Ledger's Joker performance was overrated and put on a pedestal because he died shortly afterwards needs to take off their fashionably cynical shades and watch the film again, because it's just simply brilliant.

I'd say a little from both columns on that one. Was it a great performance? Hell yes, and anyone who says it was bad knows nothing about acting. Was it Oscar worthy? Again, yes. Is it overrated? A little bit, yeah (it has, in all honesty, been blown out of proportion by a lot of people). One has to admit that in fond remembrance of those who have left us, we do tend to escalate things a bit.

OT: I would go with

Daniel Day-Lewis: There Will Be Blood (I have a feeling that one is gonna crop up a lot)
Sharlto Copely: District 9
Ellen Burstyn: Requiem for a Dream
Sam Rockwell: Moon (why, oh WHY, did he not get an Oscar nomination?!?)

Sadly my favorite performance, Edward Norton in American History X, misses the 21st century by 2 years, so I'll end it with the ever underrated Toby Jones as Truman Capote in Infamous.

I'm not so sure... It may have been blown out of proportion a bit, and as a general rule I think you're right, we tend to do that when someone dies... But it's just so good. I've seen the film four times I think, and Ledger gets better each time I watch it.

Oh, and I totally agree about American History X. Norton is probably my favourite actor ever, largely because of that one performance.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Oh God, I'm not sure I could narrow it down to just 5 out of the last 10 years. I certainly couldn't put them in order.

Ok, Here goes...

Tom Hanks - Woody - Toy Story 3
Heath Ledger - The Joker - The Dark Knight
Alfred Molina - Doc Ock - Spiderman 2
Jesse Eisenberg - Mark Zuckerberg - The Social Network
Dev Patel - Jamal - Slumdog Millionaire

(Honorary mentions go to:
Elijah Wood
Vigo Mortensen
Orlando Bloom
Keira Knightly
Emma Watson
Alan Rickman
Andrew Garfield
Ray Winstone
Ralph Fiennes
Jeremy Renner
Natalie Portman
Leonardo Di Caprio
Clint Eastwood
Daniel Radcliffe
Rupert Grint
Michael Gambon
Ian McKellen
Daniel Day Lewis
Helen Mirren
Javier Bardem
Helena Bonham Carter
Ewan McGreggor
James Franco
Andy Serkis
James Maccavoy
Colin Firth
Geoffery Rush
Johnny Depp
Jim Carey
Liam Neeson)