best film: This is a very strong category for Emily Watson. Breaking the Waves from Danish enfant terrible auteur Lars von Trier certainly looms as one of the art form’s truly great films, but Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love gives Watson two sure-fire top 100 of all-time films. Breaking the Waves relies more heavily on Watson. And as far as top twenty-five (25) films of all-time – the only film in this class that leans on their female lead actor as much or more- is Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc.
sliding doors here: apparently Helena Bonham Carter passed on playing Bess McNeill at the last minute leaving the door open for a 29-year old Watson to make her debut and give one of the best performances of all-time. Just a few years later, it would be Watson who would pass on Amelie from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who apparently wrote the lead role for Watson).
best performance: Breaking the Waves here and it is not close. Like Falconetti’s towering performance, this film is littered with close-ups that highlight the performance. Watson’s Bess McNeill has everything. She is the victim, she is a co-conspirator, she is a touch mad (or seems a such for much of the film) or painfully devout depending on the perspective. She has these remarkable scenes of dialogue with herself (or God). Watson gives an uncanny performance… and oh yeah… this is all in her debut.
stylistic innovations/traits: As mentioned above Breaking the Waves makes for a herculean debut. It would be easy to say that Watson never really lived up to her talent after that debut- but what actor could? Plus, Paul Thomas Anderson and the role in Punch-Drunk Love came along just after the turn of the millennium and that second big role and performance changed Waton’s story. Watson excels at playing characters that are a little off. Gosford Park is a nice resume pad, and she gets to trade barbs and hold her own with the great Daniel Day-Lewis in The Boxer. Still, Watson is not on this list at all if it is not for Breaking the Waves– and that is okay. Few actors get a chance at Bess McNeill. Bess is up there with Joan of Arc herself, Jake LaMotta and Daniel Plainview- being this good in a masterpiece of this caliber rarely happens in cinema history.
The odd duck looking for love- whether it is as Bess McNeill or pink-clad Lena opposite of blue-shaded Adam Sandler’s Barry in Punch-Drunk Love pictured here. The entire film is a dichotomy—formal point/counterpoint— the rage (car crash, breaking sliding glass door, beating up bathroom) and the adoration (Watson’s character and color, the harmonium, the Chaplin dance).
directors worked with: Nobody more than once but we have Robert Altman, Lars von Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joe Wright, Charlie Kaufman and Jim Sheridan here.
Watson as the maid Elsie in Altman’s superior ensemble murder mystery
top five performances:
- Breaking the Waves
- Punch-Drunk Love
- Gosford Park
- The Boxer
- Synecdoche, New York
archiveable films
| 1996- Breaking the Waves |
| 1997- The Boxer |
| 2001- Gosford Park |
| 2002- Punch-Drunk Love |
| 2005- The Proposition |
| 2008- Synecdoche, New York |
| 2012- Anna Karenina |
| 2014- The Theory of Everything |
Is missing Corpse Bride with Tim Burton a mistake here or just not counting voice work?
@Harry- No mistake here. I do not count voice work for the most part with a few notable exceptions (Scarlett in Her and Douglas James Rain in 2001 are a couple that come to mind)
@Drake-Did you see God’s Creatures(2022)?
@Malith I have not, no. Not one that is really on my radar
Why? Certified fresh on RT, distributed by A24 and highly positive reviews about the performances of the cast(especially Emily Watson herself)
@Malith- 71 on metacritic and no real director pedigree describes about 400 movies per year
@Malith- Have you caught this one? Certainly one of the ways I pick what I try to see is from cinephiles on the website when they recommend something
@Drake-No. I haven’t seen it yet. But I will see it soon. It looks too intriguing to ignore. Plus I don’t think there are a ton of movies with over 90% on RT and a talented cast like this. Not only E.Watson but also Franciosi from the Nightingale(2018) and Mescal from The Lost Daughter(2021) and Aftersun(2022).
@Malith- well please send up a flare when you see it. I am not ignoring really- just prioritizing other films- you make good points here- but there are going to be hundreds of films this year with better reviews.
Can Watson play Naomi Watts’ roles in Mulholland Dr.?
I think it’s a really interesting idea. Watson will get the initial innocence and naivety absolutely spot on. I think she’ll handle the fainal psychological unravelling with equal brilliance as well.
@MASH – I hate to say it but even though she 100% has the talent and skills for the role I’m not sure she is conventionally attractive, has the classic look required for the role.
Is the look an absolute necessity for that role?
@Drake- What do you think?
@M*A*S*H- Can Watson pull off the few scenes where Watts goes dark doppelgänger? That would be my question. I’m not sure.
One of her best acting displays in the entire film is in the scene where Adam and Camilla announce their engagement. Watts has no dialogue but her body language and spiteful glare says everything. She’s brilliant through the entire film, but that’s the scene that anchors her performance and cements it as one of the best of the century, in my opinion. Watson is a great actress, but I don’t see her pulling off that scene as well as Watts. I wouldn’t want to replace Watson with another actress for this role, but if I absolutely had to, I would probably choose someone like Julianne Moore, and as good as Moore is, it’s still a reluctant pick.
Yeah. I don’t wanna replace Watts as well. I was just creating my list of top 100 female acting performances and Watts came as #2 and it’s a performance that would come in top 10 if I combined all the male acting performances as well. That indeed is a great great scene but I’ll say her greatest display is her audition scene with that seductive voice, surreal loss into a performance and a performance within a performance aspect. But tbh like say Watson’s performance in Breaking the Waves has moments of great great acting but Watts work is more of a whole. If you show me the audition scene alone or the Adam & Camilla engagement then I won’t be convinced that her’s is probably the greatest performance of the century (along with Phoenix and DDL). I need to see the whole film, experience her performance as a whole, witness her metamorphosis and dream/reality aspects of her performance to fully appreciate it.
As for casting, Watts is perfect. Moore won’t be as good. I was thinking about Kidman but there’s no chance that Kidman could get that initial Naivety. Watson will get the Naivety absolutely right. Not that i wanna replace Watts.
Did she actually outact DDL in the Boxer? Throughout the film her eyes convey such emotion and longing. And she also has some standout scenes with his father played by Brian Cox here.
@Anderson- Very interesting- something I’ll have to watch out for on the next viewing