With a lot of actors, you can pretty well guess what you're going to get in terms of performance before even seeing the film. Some have ridiculously high standards - people like Jack Nicholson, Sam Rockwell, or Emma Thompson - and rarely (if ever) disappoint. Some are more up and down, but usually interesting if not revelatory in their work. And some - like the ones featured on this list - are almost always terrible, bland, pick awful projects, or some combination of the three. They've impressed me in these particular roles and probably not anywhere else.
1. Mo'Nique in Precious
Very few actresses have surprised me as much as Mo'Nique did with her riveting, brutal, and complicated turn as Mary, the abusive mother in Precious. I've only seen the film once, about eight years ago, but many scenes and moments are ingrained into my memory thanks to this powerful performance. Mo'Nique, director Lee Daniels, and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher created a totally believable and human character. Mary is more often than not intimidating and downright scary, but she also has moments of genuine weakness and fear and remorse. Mo'Nique handles all of the different material wonderfully and I think she completely deserved her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win, in addition to all the other accolades that she collected for this performance. I haven't seen her in anything else since, but if Mo'Nique never made another film, I'd still remember her for this unbelievably surprising and emotional turn.
Marky Mark is one of my least favorite actors in Hollywood. Not only is he a vile, hypocritical, egotistical blowhard, but he's just such a bad and bland actor who consistently picks uninteresting projects. Other than Boogie Nights - where Wahlberg is the weakest link in a phenomenal film - almost all of his films and/or performances are forgettable or worse. Except for The Departed. In Martin Scorsese's epic crime drama, Wahlberg gets to play a well written, memorable character in a fantastic film and he doesn't fuck anything up! He doesn't do his patented vacant stare or lifeless line readings. He performs quite admirably in scenes with actors so much better than him that it's not even funny. The former Funky Bunch leader shares moments with Martin Sheen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Alec Baldwin and actually manages to hold his own and even steals some of those scenes with his expertly delivered jabs and one-liners. Even now, after more than a decade and easily ten viewings, whenever I watch The Departed Wahlberg never ceases to surprise me. It's like every shit movie/performance like The Happening, Daddy's Home, and The Italian Job have created a haze that makes me forget how great he can be if given the perfect material and legendary direction.
To be fair, I haven't seen Marlon Wayans in a whole lot of movies, but I can attest he's awful in Scary Movie 1 & 2, annoyingly bad (and miscast) in the Coen's remake of The Ladykillers, and (seemingly very) forgettable in GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. Just seeing the previews for movies like White Chicks, Little Man, Dance Flick, and A Haunted House have cemented my opinion that Wayans completely overperformed in the beautiful, haunting, and shocking Requiem for a Dream. As Tyrone, a small time drug dealer with high hopes and dreams, but without the willpower to achieve them, Wayans shines. Tyrone is a fully formed character and Wayans plays all the highs and lows, from optimistic plans for the future to grief and despair, perfectly well. He shares the screen with Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly and helps to create a nifty little triangle. Requiem is a notoriously hard film to watch, but if you haven't seen it, I'd strongly recommend it for many reasons. One of which is to see Wayans in a completely different light than his usual half-assed "comedic" roles.
Crash gets a lot of hate online and while I can see where some of that comes from - the film is very heavy handed with just about every aspect - it is filled with very good performances from some generally poor/average performers, like Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Sandra Bullock, and Brendan Fraser. But Ludacris is the most surprising cast member. With such a large ensemble cast, no one gets a whole lot of screen time, but Ludacris does the most with his limited time as Anthony, a low level car thief. Most of his scenes are shared with Larenz Tate and the two have an easy going chemistry that makes you feel like they may have been brothers or best friends in real life. They play off each well remarkably well, but Ludacris has a bit more charisma and swagger, resulting in his being the more memorable and surprising performance. In the end, Anthony gets a chance at redemption and takes it, giving Ludacris another moment to shine. Crash is a film that while I'm not ashamed to admit I love, I don't go out of my way to defend. But I'll defend Ludacris in it and would love to see him pop up in another interesting, complex film instead of just more Fast and Furious flicks.
Speaking of the Fast and Furious flicks, the star of that series - Mr. Vin Diesel - is pretty much universally maligned for his acting talents, or lack thereof. But under the guidance of the master Sidney Lumet, Diesel turned in a wonderfully surprising performance as Jackie DiNorscio, a low level Mafioso on trial for his long history of crimes who decides to represent himself. Diesel gets to flex his acting muscles for a change, showing a wide range from angry and sullen to light and playful. Jackie is a bit of a clown and loves the spotlight, goofing off during the trial even as his freedom hangs in the balance. In almost everything I've seen Diesel in, he seems to take himself too serious - even when the material doesn't call for it - so it was a nice change of pace to see this lighter side. I don't think he's a great actor by any stretch, but between his small supporting role in Saving Private Ryan early on in his career and this one nearly a decade later, well after he became a action superstar, Diesel certainly proved that he had some skill and was capable of more than driving cars and grunting out his lines.
Cameron Diaz started out her acting career as the "hot" girl in The Mask and pretty much continued on that path ever since. Plenty of people loved her performance - and unusual look - in Being John Malkovich, but I wasn't particularly impressed by Diaz or the film. Her two best roles, in my opinion, were in In Her Shoes and Vanilla Sky, which I picked for this list. Those are the two films where she really surprised me, but I went with Vanilla Sky because I think it's the slightly better performance and film and came out first. Diaz is definitely still attractive in Vanilla Sky, but she gets to stretch as the borderline insane Julie, who becomes obsessed with Tom Cruise's David and goes off the deep end when he rebuffs her. Diaz absolutely stuns in a pivotal scene where Julie crashes her car in an attempt to kill the both of them. Her manic intensity in that scene in particular was astounding. Compared to her downright terrible performance one year later in Gangs of New York, it's amazing the same person is responsible for both of them. I'd love to be surprised by another Diaz performance, but given her recent track record (it's been four years since her last role and 13 since her last good performance in In Her Shoes), that seems very unlikely.
While most people might pick Adam Sandler's work in Punch-Drunk Love as his most surprising, I've always thought he just played his regular character - childish and prone to loud outbursts - in Paul Thomas Anderson's excellent dark comedy/romance. But as Charlie, a man overcome with grief in Reign Over Me, he stretches in a completely different direction. Charlie is mourning the loss of his wife and way of life after the events of 9/11. Even years later, he's still devastatingly broken and lost, even in a sea of people in NYC. Sandler gets to be quiet, removed, and thoughtful for long stretches, and has a remarkable breakthrough towards the end that results in the best acting moments of his long and mostly unvaried career. The only reason this performance is so low on this list is that Sandler has done some similarly themed serious work in Punch-Drunk Love, Funny People, and even in Click, but none of those performances are at the same level as his work in Reign Over Me. Now that Sandler is a shell of his former self even in his easy going, schlubby comedies, I can't imagine we'll ever get to see him stretch like this again. He doesn't seem to have the desire to actually "work" anymore. And that's a shame, as he's proven he has the skill to pull off a great performance.
Sharon Stone - like Cameron Diaz and, I guess, most beautiful women in Hollywood - probably never got the opportunities to shine that she should have had. I've only seen maybe a third of her filmography and she's been fine a few films, but she is absolutely magnificent as Ginger in Casino, Martin Scorsese's epic tale of corruption, betrayal, and violence, both emotional and physical. Stone gets to show off her beauty, but also her wide range of acting skill. Ginger is fun, sexy, seductive, strong willed, rebellious, deceitful, manipulative, and a drug abuser which intensifies almost all of these traits and Stone is equally adept at portraying each aspect of Ginger's personality. She more than holds her own along Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and James Woods, which is very impressive. I recently discovered that Scorsese is directing Stone in another, as of yet untitled, film and that will be interesting to see. It's hard to imagine Stone topping her performance here, but I'm excited to see her try.
While Julia Roberts has been good in several films - Pretty Woman, Closer, and Charlie Wilson's War immediately come to mind - but she's been shockingly bad in two or three times as many films. When it comes down to most projects, I think Roberts benefits from a great script and she doesn't really have the acting chops to elevate a mediocre one. In the case of Erin Brockovich, I think it's a perfect combination of things - a great script and a great performance. As the titular character, Roberts is magnificent and is also surrounded by a talented supporting cast, which I think really helps her embody this complex, complicated character so well. Roberts does equally well delivering the zingy barbs Erin loves to throw - at everyone from her boss, boyfriend, and opposing lawyers - as she does during the quiet moments or the scenes where her blood boils over and she explodes in anger. Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance here and while it's not my pick for that year - Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream and Joan Allen in The Contender are both significantly better - I think the Academy was equally surprised by Robert's tremendous work and wanted to reward her while they had the chance.
This one is a bit of a cheat as Stallone has proven himself a very capable actor in the Rocky series - or at least in parts one, six, and Creed - but for most of the 39 years in between those two films, he starred in awful schlocky action flicks like Daylight, Over the Top, and Cobra or in fun schlocky action flicks like Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, and Tango & Cash but didn't exactly stretch or try to anything new or exciting. In Cop Land, though, he does just that. Sly packed on some pounds, which must have been hard to do considering his ego about his physique, and got to play a very different type of character. As Sheriff Freddy Heflin, the depressed, out of shape, and physically impaired lawman of "Cop Land" - a suburb in New Jersey where NYC cops and their families live - Stallone really gets to flex some long dormant muscles, particularly those dealing with expressing genuine emotions and helping to create an interesting, original character. Freddy doesn't get the respect of the cops he so admires and when he starts investigating them for a serious crime, he's got to change his whole demeanor in order to get the job done. Stallone handles the transition from sad and quiet to outspoken and demanding very well and upstages all of his costars - including Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta - in the best performance of his career. With all the sequels that get made, I always kinda held out hope for another Cop Land as I'd love to see Freddy now, at the very twilight of his career, investigating one last crime.
Well, there's my list! What are some of your favorite surprising performances? Do you like or hate any of my choices? Let me know in the comments section!
2. Mark Wahlberg in The Departed
Marky Mark is one of my least favorite actors in Hollywood. Not only is he a vile, hypocritical, egotistical blowhard, but he's just such a bad and bland actor who consistently picks uninteresting projects. Other than Boogie Nights - where Wahlberg is the weakest link in a phenomenal film - almost all of his films and/or performances are forgettable or worse. Except for The Departed. In Martin Scorsese's epic crime drama, Wahlberg gets to play a well written, memorable character in a fantastic film and he doesn't fuck anything up! He doesn't do his patented vacant stare or lifeless line readings. He performs quite admirably in scenes with actors so much better than him that it's not even funny. The former Funky Bunch leader shares moments with Martin Sheen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Alec Baldwin and actually manages to hold his own and even steals some of those scenes with his expertly delivered jabs and one-liners. Even now, after more than a decade and easily ten viewings, whenever I watch The Departed Wahlberg never ceases to surprise me. It's like every shit movie/performance like The Happening, Daddy's Home, and The Italian Job have created a haze that makes me forget how great he can be if given the perfect material and legendary direction.
3. Marlon Wayans in Requiem for a Dream
To be fair, I haven't seen Marlon Wayans in a whole lot of movies, but I can attest he's awful in Scary Movie 1 & 2, annoyingly bad (and miscast) in the Coen's remake of The Ladykillers, and (seemingly very) forgettable in GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. Just seeing the previews for movies like White Chicks, Little Man, Dance Flick, and A Haunted House have cemented my opinion that Wayans completely overperformed in the beautiful, haunting, and shocking Requiem for a Dream. As Tyrone, a small time drug dealer with high hopes and dreams, but without the willpower to achieve them, Wayans shines. Tyrone is a fully formed character and Wayans plays all the highs and lows, from optimistic plans for the future to grief and despair, perfectly well. He shares the screen with Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly and helps to create a nifty little triangle. Requiem is a notoriously hard film to watch, but if you haven't seen it, I'd strongly recommend it for many reasons. One of which is to see Wayans in a completely different light than his usual half-assed "comedic" roles.
4. Chris "Ludacris" Bridges in Crash
Crash gets a lot of hate online and while I can see where some of that comes from - the film is very heavy handed with just about every aspect - it is filled with very good performances from some generally poor/average performers, like Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Sandra Bullock, and Brendan Fraser. But Ludacris is the most surprising cast member. With such a large ensemble cast, no one gets a whole lot of screen time, but Ludacris does the most with his limited time as Anthony, a low level car thief. Most of his scenes are shared with Larenz Tate and the two have an easy going chemistry that makes you feel like they may have been brothers or best friends in real life. They play off each well remarkably well, but Ludacris has a bit more charisma and swagger, resulting in his being the more memorable and surprising performance. In the end, Anthony gets a chance at redemption and takes it, giving Ludacris another moment to shine. Crash is a film that while I'm not ashamed to admit I love, I don't go out of my way to defend. But I'll defend Ludacris in it and would love to see him pop up in another interesting, complex film instead of just more Fast and Furious flicks.
5. Vin Diesel in Find Me Guilty
Speaking of the Fast and Furious flicks, the star of that series - Mr. Vin Diesel - is pretty much universally maligned for his acting talents, or lack thereof. But under the guidance of the master Sidney Lumet, Diesel turned in a wonderfully surprising performance as Jackie DiNorscio, a low level Mafioso on trial for his long history of crimes who decides to represent himself. Diesel gets to flex his acting muscles for a change, showing a wide range from angry and sullen to light and playful. Jackie is a bit of a clown and loves the spotlight, goofing off during the trial even as his freedom hangs in the balance. In almost everything I've seen Diesel in, he seems to take himself too serious - even when the material doesn't call for it - so it was a nice change of pace to see this lighter side. I don't think he's a great actor by any stretch, but between his small supporting role in Saving Private Ryan early on in his career and this one nearly a decade later, well after he became a action superstar, Diesel certainly proved that he had some skill and was capable of more than driving cars and grunting out his lines.
6. Cameron Diaz in Vanilla Sky
Cameron Diaz started out her acting career as the "hot" girl in The Mask and pretty much continued on that path ever since. Plenty of people loved her performance - and unusual look - in Being John Malkovich, but I wasn't particularly impressed by Diaz or the film. Her two best roles, in my opinion, were in In Her Shoes and Vanilla Sky, which I picked for this list. Those are the two films where she really surprised me, but I went with Vanilla Sky because I think it's the slightly better performance and film and came out first. Diaz is definitely still attractive in Vanilla Sky, but she gets to stretch as the borderline insane Julie, who becomes obsessed with Tom Cruise's David and goes off the deep end when he rebuffs her. Diaz absolutely stuns in a pivotal scene where Julie crashes her car in an attempt to kill the both of them. Her manic intensity in that scene in particular was astounding. Compared to her downright terrible performance one year later in Gangs of New York, it's amazing the same person is responsible for both of them. I'd love to be surprised by another Diaz performance, but given her recent track record (it's been four years since her last role and 13 since her last good performance in In Her Shoes), that seems very unlikely.
7. Adam Sandler in Reign Over Me
While most people might pick Adam Sandler's work in Punch-Drunk Love as his most surprising, I've always thought he just played his regular character - childish and prone to loud outbursts - in Paul Thomas Anderson's excellent dark comedy/romance. But as Charlie, a man overcome with grief in Reign Over Me, he stretches in a completely different direction. Charlie is mourning the loss of his wife and way of life after the events of 9/11. Even years later, he's still devastatingly broken and lost, even in a sea of people in NYC. Sandler gets to be quiet, removed, and thoughtful for long stretches, and has a remarkable breakthrough towards the end that results in the best acting moments of his long and mostly unvaried career. The only reason this performance is so low on this list is that Sandler has done some similarly themed serious work in Punch-Drunk Love, Funny People, and even in Click, but none of those performances are at the same level as his work in Reign Over Me. Now that Sandler is a shell of his former self even in his easy going, schlubby comedies, I can't imagine we'll ever get to see him stretch like this again. He doesn't seem to have the desire to actually "work" anymore. And that's a shame, as he's proven he has the skill to pull off a great performance.
8. Sharon Stone in Casino
Sharon Stone - like Cameron Diaz and, I guess, most beautiful women in Hollywood - probably never got the opportunities to shine that she should have had. I've only seen maybe a third of her filmography and she's been fine a few films, but she is absolutely magnificent as Ginger in Casino, Martin Scorsese's epic tale of corruption, betrayal, and violence, both emotional and physical. Stone gets to show off her beauty, but also her wide range of acting skill. Ginger is fun, sexy, seductive, strong willed, rebellious, deceitful, manipulative, and a drug abuser which intensifies almost all of these traits and Stone is equally adept at portraying each aspect of Ginger's personality. She more than holds her own along Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and James Woods, which is very impressive. I recently discovered that Scorsese is directing Stone in another, as of yet untitled, film and that will be interesting to see. It's hard to imagine Stone topping her performance here, but I'm excited to see her try.
9. Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich
While Julia Roberts has been good in several films - Pretty Woman, Closer, and Charlie Wilson's War immediately come to mind - but she's been shockingly bad in two or three times as many films. When it comes down to most projects, I think Roberts benefits from a great script and she doesn't really have the acting chops to elevate a mediocre one. In the case of Erin Brockovich, I think it's a perfect combination of things - a great script and a great performance. As the titular character, Roberts is magnificent and is also surrounded by a talented supporting cast, which I think really helps her embody this complex, complicated character so well. Roberts does equally well delivering the zingy barbs Erin loves to throw - at everyone from her boss, boyfriend, and opposing lawyers - as she does during the quiet moments or the scenes where her blood boils over and she explodes in anger. Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance here and while it's not my pick for that year - Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream and Joan Allen in The Contender are both significantly better - I think the Academy was equally surprised by Robert's tremendous work and wanted to reward her while they had the chance.
10. Sylvester Stallone in Cop Land
This one is a bit of a cheat as Stallone has proven himself a very capable actor in the Rocky series - or at least in parts one, six, and Creed - but for most of the 39 years in between those two films, he starred in awful schlocky action flicks like Daylight, Over the Top, and Cobra or in fun schlocky action flicks like Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, and Tango & Cash but didn't exactly stretch or try to anything new or exciting. In Cop Land, though, he does just that. Sly packed on some pounds, which must have been hard to do considering his ego about his physique, and got to play a very different type of character. As Sheriff Freddy Heflin, the depressed, out of shape, and physically impaired lawman of "Cop Land" - a suburb in New Jersey where NYC cops and their families live - Stallone really gets to flex some long dormant muscles, particularly those dealing with expressing genuine emotions and helping to create an interesting, original character. Freddy doesn't get the respect of the cops he so admires and when he starts investigating them for a serious crime, he's got to change his whole demeanor in order to get the job done. Stallone handles the transition from sad and quiet to outspoken and demanding very well and upstages all of his costars - including Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta - in the best performance of his career. With all the sequels that get made, I always kinda held out hope for another Cop Land as I'd love to see Freddy now, at the very twilight of his career, investigating one last crime.
Well, there's my list! What are some of your favorite surprising performances? Do you like or hate any of my choices? Let me know in the comments section!
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