The 10 Most Underrated Film Performances of 2008

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CHICAGO – From Heath Ledger’s searing portrayal of The Joker in “The Dark Knight” to Sean Penn’s riveting embodiment of Harvey Milk in “Milk,” 2008 has been an excellent year for on-screen performances.

However, the onslaught of high-caliber performances at the end of the year – including Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon,” the reunion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in “Revolutionary Road,” Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and the quartet of regularly nominated actors from “Doubt” – has left some great work from earlier in the year underappreciated and underrated.

Sometimes it’s a case of critics and award voters seemingly only being able to remember one actor from a certain film and sometimes it’s a tragic case of an entire movie not being recognized thoroughly while late-season, high-profile films incorrectly steal their thunder. Either way, it was shockingly easy to come up with 10 performances that are barely getting mentioned in this season of nominations and year-end lists and truly should be especially considering the overrated ones that are getting such undeserved praise.

First and foremost, deciding what determined the qualification for “underrated” needs to be defined. Josh Brolin in “Milk,” Eddie Marsan in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” Michelle Williams in “Wendy & Lucy,” the cast of “In Bruges” and James Franco in both “Milk” and “Pineapple Express” all deserve at least one nomination or two that they didn’t get. When they have been snubbed, they’ve been mentioned and they’ve all received at least one major nomination. Academy members should definitely take a second look at all of them (especially Marsan, Brolin and Franco), but they can’t exactly be called underrated when they’ve already gotten so much press.

10. Hiam Abbass as Mouna Khalil in “The Visitor”

It’s been wonderful to see the very-deserving Richard Jenkins get the press and nominations he richly deserves for “The Visitor”, but the performance wouldn’t be nearly as complete without the decisions made by his lovely and underrated co-star, Hiam Abbass. Walter (Jenkins) is a man whose heart has been closed since his wife’s death and it’s first re-opened by the friendship of Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), an awakening that takes Walter to unexpected places, particularly his response to Tarek’s unjust incarceration and the arrival of Tarek’s mother, Mouna. It’s not your typical love affair, but Mouna and Walter change each other’s lives forever and the final act of “The Visitor” wouldn’t have nearly the emotional power that it does without BOTH of their performances. It’s a turn by a supporting actress that hasn’t even been mentioned in the year-end conversation, even though it stands far above many performances that have already been nominated.

9. Emily Mortimer as Jessie in “Transsiberian”

Great thriller performances are often underrated. If critics are too busy scribbling down the twists and turns of an intricate plot, they sometimes miss the acting involved. Well-reviewed thrillers may get credit for their director (the word “Hitchcockian” is one of the most overused in the critical vocabulary), but the cast misses out on the acclaim. Brad Anderson’s “Transsiberian”, one of the best thrillers of the last several years, would completely collapse if not for the three-dimensional performance by the always-great Emily Mortimer (who also rocked this year in “Redbelt” and was the best thing about “Chaos Theory”). As Jessie, Mortimer has the biggest burden in “Transsiberian” - to make her extreme actions believable. In retrospect, you or I probably wouldn’t have gone on that field trip with Carlos and might have acted a little more rationally afterwards, but Mortimer sells it when it counts - during the film. The thriller genre is in a state of disaster nowadays because too many writers and directors forgo character in favor of plot twists, but Anderson and Mortimer know that films are a lot more thrilling when the people and their actions are believable.

8. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry in “Redbelt”

American audiences seem to be having a tough time catching up with the greatness of Chiwetel Ejiofor. That’s not the case overseas, where Ejiofor won the Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Actor earlier this year, beating out Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen. Sure, that was stage work, but what Ejiofor has accomplished on-screen in films as diverse as “Serenity”, “Dirty Pretty Things”, “Kinky Boots”, “Talk to Me”, and this year’s “Redbelt” has been consistently fascinating. As much as any actor of his generation, Ejiofor has a charisma and an on-screen resonance that brings gravity to everything he does. He was the perfect choice for Mike Terry in David Mamet’s “Redbelt”, a film about a man with an unbreakable moral code. Mamet has long-been fascinated by good men surrounded by wolves, but Mike may be the most morally righteous character that the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/director has ever written. It’s not easy to sell unshakable beliefs to an audience, but Ejiofor is perfect yet again, bringing a touch of grace and calm that you don’t often see in Mamet characters.

7. Michael Fassbinder as Bobby Sands in “Hunger”

One of the most riveting scenes in any movie this year is the emotional centerpiece that kicks off the final act of Steve McQueen’s “Hunger”, a must-see on every level that we’ll cover more upon its release. You may be asking how a performance in a film that hasn’t been released could be underrated. Well, most critics and journalists have seen “Hunger” and, while McQueen has been getting some appropriate raves, Fassbinder seems to be sliding under the radar. Don’t let it happen. “Hunger” is a surreal, riveting experience with no clear protagonist for at least the first half of the film and very little dialogue. The mesmerizing, nearly silent film is shattered by a sequence that is just as jaw-dropping in its simplicity. IRA activist Bobby Sands (Fassbinder) has a meeting with his priest to convince him why the hunger strike he’s about to go on is the only morally correct decision for his future. With no cuts and very little blocking beyond smoking for SEVENTEEN minutes, Fassbinder is impossible to ignore. In 2008, Michael Shannon and Viola Davis have earned heaps of praise for brief roles in their respective films. With just one, extended scene of dialogue in “Hunger”, Fassbinder is just as hard to forget.

6. Elsa Zylberstein as Lea in “I’ve Loved You So Long”

Kristin Scott Thomas has rocked critics and audiences with her work in “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Richard Roeper even called it the best performance of the decade), but her co-star has been largely ignored. Elsa Zylberstein is the emotional “heat” to the “cool” of Thomas’ performance, and neither would be nearly as complete without the other. She’s the perfect balance to everything that Thomas accomplishes in one of the best performances of the year, but she has been completely absent from the Best Supporting Actress conversation. In a year for good female roles, it could be understandable that Zylberstein might not make a critic’s top five, but she damn sure should have been considered. The cold exterior of Thomas wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the decisions made by the nearly-as-good and more externally demanding work done by Zylberstein.