6 Best Natalie Portman Performances
This year, it seems like Natalie Portman has been in movie theaters every week. After receiving an Oscar for her highly acclaimed performance in Black Swan, she has been busy raising her star power in more commercial movies, starring in the romantic comedy No Strings Attached, the stoner comedy Your Highness and just this past weekend, Marvel’s superhero flick Thor. While some may soon start to complain about her overexposure, one can’t deny that the 29-yr old actress has been able to stay relevant in Hollywood over the span of nearly two decades.
Note: Instead of a top 10 this week, we decided to highlight only 6 of her performances because she is still such a young actress and we can’t exactly say that she hasn’t had up and downs over her career.
6. Evey in V for Vendetta
James McTeigue’s adaptation of the graphic novel V For Vendetta saw Portman go to great length to become Evey, even going as far as shaving her head and yelling at some weird dude in a Guy Fawkes mask. Rescued by the masked anarchist known as V (Hugo Weaving), her character slowly realizes that violence may well be acceptable in the face of stiffling oppression. Albeit a bit forced in a couple scenes, it’s a strong performance which helped this dystopian thriller become one of the best graphic novel adaptation of the last decade.
5. Sara in Cold Mountain
It’s only a minor role with about 5 minutes of screen time but Portman’s appearance in Anthony Minghella’s 2006 romantic drama Cold Mountain was one of the most memorable part of the film. She played Sara, a young, grimy widow raising a baby by herself who befriends a confederate soldier (Jude Law) seeking refuge for a night. When three Union soldiers come by her isolated house looking for food, it doesn’t take long for her to realize the gravity of her situation. Showing the desperation and inner-strength to do anything to protect her baby, Portman nails the type of scene she tends to overplay in other movies. For good measure, she also shoots a young Cillian Murphy in the back!
4. Alice in Closer
Natalie Portman won a Golden Globe and received her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Alice in Mike Nichols’s Closer, an adaptation of Patrick Marber’s play. Also starring Jude law, Clive Owen, and Julia Roberts, the film revolves around a romantic rectangle composed by the four actors. Portraying Alice, a young woman who works as both a waitress and a stripper, Portman made the leap from her usual “adorable nice girl” roles to something completely on the other side of the spectrum. Her character’s naivety and need to be loved is constantly palpable and when she learns the truth about Dan, it’s a gut-wrenching moment.
3. Sam in Garden State
Zach Braff’s quirky comedy Garden State decidedly converted a lot of people into Natalie Portman undying fans as it is her most luminous performance to this day. The actress steals the show as Sam, a very good pathological liar with various maladies who meets the main character Andrew at the doctor’s office. Blessed with a golden heart and an adorably free-spirited personality, Sam makes for a funny and endearing presence, pulling viewers into this story of friendship and finding oneself.
2. Nina Sayers in Black Swan
Winning an Oscar for her sublime performance in Black Swan, Natalie Portman’s seemingly innocent charm, fragility and awkwardness made her a perfect match to play Nina Sayers. Her character’s slow mental degradation goes hand in hand with Darren Aronofskly’s peculiar direction to create one of the best viewing experience of 2010. In many ways, Nina Sayers’ emotional struggles are also Portman’s own. As Salon’s Andrew O”Hehir puts it:
Darren Aronofsky uses Portman’s awkwardness to the film’s advantage. It’s hard to tell whether we’re watching Portman wrestling with the Black Swan/White Swan dichotomy, or her character doing so.
While it’s a mostly one-note performance, it’s the kind of flashy portrayal that everyone loves to swoon over. Decades from now, it’s likely that Natalie Portman will be remembered most for this role.
1. Mathilda in Leon (The Professional)
Natalie Portman’s first role at the tender age of 12 was so impressive that it took many years for her to even come close to being this brilliant again. Mathilda becomes an orphaned little girl after her drug-addicted family is murdered by corrupted DEA agents. She is taken in by her neighbor Leon (the excellent Jean Reno), a hitman who teaches her how to kill but gains from her the warmth of being needed and loved. Mathilda is a fascinating character and Portman shows at an early age that she has an affinity for the camera, shining in one wonderful child performance for the ages. Who can forget the scene in which she walks past her apartment, knowing full well happened to her family, and knocks on Leon’s door with tears running down her cheeks? No matter where her career takes her, Natalie Portman will always have Leon.
Are you a fan of Natalie Portman? What is your favorite performance of hers? Vote and comment below!
44 Comments
This kind of list won’t be complete without Mathilda and Evey, so I’m glad to see both in here. Haven’t seen the rest yet, but no surprise to see the Black Swan role, looks like it’s an incredible feat for her.
Oh, she’s pretty good in ‘Paris, je t’aime’ too in one of the short stories.
You haven’t seen Black Swan? Come on! I already saw it a second time and I must say, I liked it a little bit more. It’s available on Netflix
I’ll see it eventually. It really isn’t my thing even though I like ballet in movies.
Though I’m not the biggest fan of V for Vendetta, I think that’s probably her strongest performance – along with Black Swan. And for younger roles, she was pretty great in Beautiful Girls. Kind of goes hand in hand with her “Sam” character I think.
Great list man!
OT: That might be the coolest Gravatar I have seen in a while.
@ Joel: I agree!
@ Andrew: Thank you sir
All solid choices. My personal faves are Mathilda and Evey. Although I have it on good authority that her brief turn in Cold Mountain was off the hook.
No Marty in “Beautiful Girls?” Woe is me. But I’m glad you included her work in “Cold Mountain”, however brief, because it was indeed off the hook.
I second Marty. This list is incomplete without that incredible performance that certainly outdoes most everything else on this list.
I must THIRD this! I am glad too that you mentioned Cold Mountain in this list! A fantastic movie and her part was gripping and true.
A great list. I voted for Evey!
I never thought Closer was all that great, so that ruined her performance as Alice for a me quite a bit. Same thing for Garden Sate.
Nina Sayers is top notch stuff, with Mathilda in a very close 2nd.
Well the other day, you wondered why we could mention about 5 movies from her to be on the poll. I guess that’s why lol
Well I figured there would actually be more. As much as I don’t really care for those roles, I can see why people like them.
It was just odd to me that somebody with Portman’s profile could be limited to only 5 movies.
Well she is still only 29 so her resume isn’t going to be as extensive as older actresses. Also, well let’s face it, Black Swan really did a lot for her. She was very much in the middle of the pack before that.
I also found that interesting, considering other websites have it as Top6 Portman role or Top7 – you pick the last 3. LOL
But I guess you have to have at least a 20-year career to get a substantial quantity of roles for a Top10.
I like that you put Mathilda ahead of Nina xD and I don’t know if it’s possible… but she was pretty good in Hotel Chevalier.
I always sort of liked her, but “Black Swan” was the role that really made me sit up and take notice.
WHERE IS QUEEN AMIDALA?!?!
/sarcasm
Those scenes with Hayden Christensen were absolutely the worst “professional” acting I have seen in my life. Even as a kid who knew nothing about film, they made me cringe.
“Sand is rough and irritating. You are not like sand.” It’s not a direct quote, but it may be an improvement over the dialogue in those scenes.
Now to get them out of my head, all I need is a chalkboard and some long nails.
Another vote for ‘Beautiful Girls.’ Very underrated movie.
Absolutely. I’m no Portman fan (she’s found her level with her post-Oscar movie dross like Your Highness) but she was very good as a child actor. Beautiful Girls 1, Leon 2, Golden State 3, and not much else after that.
Definitely the best six picks, although I haven’t seen Cold Mountain yet. It’s kind of a coin toss between the Top 2 as to which one is better, but she probably gave the best performance of any child star ever as Mathilda (hyperbole well intended). This makes me want to watch all these movies over again. Thank you, Castor.
Wait, where’s No Strings Attached??
Just kidding, of course. I agree with your top three selections, those are all amazing performances. I still need to watch Closer and Cold Mountain though.
I have a list I made last year for the LAMB here: http://thevoid99.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-of-natalie-portman-1994-2010-so.html
It’s about the best and worst that she’s done from 1994-2010.
I think she did great in The Professional, but I gotta say that I think she may have topped that with Black Swan. Mostly one-note? I don’t get that at all. She went from one of the spectrum to the other with that performance, and back and forth again. I think she showed more range in that movie than half of these actresses around today will show in a lifetime.
I really liked her in Garden State as well. She did a great job there. And she did do well in V for Vendetta too, plus it helps that I just absolutely love that movie.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great performance that felt thoroughly authentic. I do believe it’s mostly one-note. From beginning to near the end, she is wearing only one-expression and the performance definitely lacks in range. It’s not a bad thing as she was absolutely perfect to portray the white swan. You will argue that she becomes the black swan at the end but we see barely a few seconds of her transformation and she gets a lot of assistance from freaky makeup, bloodshot eyes, and the way the movie was edited. Sure, I believe that Nina became the Black Swan but only because the movie asked me to do so.
I think there were several times where maybe we didn’t get to see her be the Black Swan like she embodied it in the end, but she definitely went to a darker side with her freaking out and hysterics and all that which was definitely a stretch in range from her timid ultra-sweet character she was to start.
“beginning to near the end, she is wearing only one-expression and the performance definitely lacks in range”
which makes me wonder if we have seen the same movie. That’s so not the case.
How anyone who has watched this movie can come to that conclusion baffles me. I mean… it’s not like we’re arguing about nuances her, it’s really like the exact opposite. She almost does too much.
Hi Atze and thanks for dropping by!
Ahaha well I guess I could say the same thing of people who think her performance wasn’t one-note
Again, I really liked her in Black Swan and IMO she was the perfect actress to play the role.
All I’m saying is that the character is very much one-dimensional. Nina is always trembling, repressing tears, crying, brooding and just all around collapsing all over her fragile and vulnerable self. There is very little contrast to her performance, we never see her doing something as ordinary as being happy, content or even just smile in earnest. Maybe it wasn’t her fault since the movie is very much one-note itself and that’s all it called for. It’s just that we never get to know her beyond the fact that ballet is everything to her and that she is slowly losing it. Again, there is a few little flashes that there is a little more complexity to her character (the bathroom stall scene, the ending) but those don’t even amount to 2 minutes of screen time in the movie.
Now, let me ask you and JL this: How is her performance not one-note?
“we never see her doing something as ordinary as being happy, content or even just smile in earnes
Now, let me ask you and JL this: How is her performance not one-note?”
The club szene comes to mind immediately. Remember that szene where the extasy starts kicking in or in the car afterwards? (smile 1 and 2) She was all loose, content and happy there (drug induced of course but still)
It’s been a while since I saw it but let’s see, szenes with her that don’t have the attribute trembling, crying or brooding:
In addition to the aforementioned club szene I can remember the szene where she is in Casell’s appartment trying to meneuver herself out of that awkward situation (among many other things smile2),
almost every szene where she is alone with her mother e.g.
-the cake szene with her smiling (4) and being happy at first and then getting frightened because she upset her mother
-acting like a bitchy little girl complaining she would have nailed that audition if Lily hadn’t come in
-the argument she had with her mother before Lily rang (rebellious) and the argument when she came home drunk (loved that szene, smile5),
everytime she’s pissed with Lily
In addition that very short szene after she got out of the bathtub where she cut herself, the sex szene in part (most of it is Lily but we see Portman’s dark side a few times), basically the whole szene in the dressing room and then of course the grand final.
Portman does so many things in that movie. She smiles (even though only for short moments, her life wasn’t that funny), plays awkward, drunk, rebellious, bitchy, crazy, determined, frightened and vulnurable even before her grand final or in other words one-note my ass. Maybe you should watch the movie again and stop reading Salon. O’Hehir is one crap critic anyway.
P.S.: I’m sorry if there are any grammatical or spelling mistakes. If you didn’t understand something pleas let me know. English is not my first language.
I have seen the movie twice, most recently just last week
In any case, I guess this discussion isn’t really going anywhere as you are simply picking apart a few words rather than my entire argument. It’s all too easy to call O’Hehir a “crap critic” because he offers some criticism (even though he raved about her performance) but I could easily find more critics who also support this view.
Aside from small sections of the bar scene and the ensuing drunk confrontation with her mother, how is everything else you pointed out not part of the same insecure, pained and vulnerable character I have described? Do we learn anything new about her character that we don’t know within the first 15 minutes of the movie?
What can I say to back up Castor here…
It’s probably connotative in that “one-note” sounds like an insult. Natalie does everything she’s asked to do in the film. She nails the character’s insecurities, but the film is all about archetype and Nina IS an archetype. She shows deep feeling in scenes like the phone call with her mother, but Nina is generally a watcher – she’s the protagonist but it’s as if all the things are happening around her and she’s not an active participant which (I think) reinforces Castor’s point about her not changing as the film progresses. She changes physically to become the black swan, but any significant emotional transformation eludes me.
I think some people simply expected something different. This is not a gradual transformation. As JL rightfully put it, she jumps back and forth. She plays a girl with two personalities and we see that second personality pushing more and more to the surface as the film progresses and at the end taking over completely. And although that transformation is not linear we see that second personality shining through multiple times (as I mentioned: the szenes with her mom, her being rebellious, bitchy, etc.). Or are you telling me that whiny girl you see in that cell phone szene is the same girl who dares to tell her mother that her career sucked or who she just f***ed? I don’t think so.
I’m surprised her work in BROTHERS isn’t on the list. Not flawless, but surprisingly nuanced. My favourite performance from her is still Alice in CLOSER even though, incidentally, I consider her the weakest link in that quartet.
Andrew, I could use some backup from you in the comments above ahah
I also think her role in Brothers deserves to be on this list
@ Andrew, Julian: I enjoyed Brothers and liked her unusually quiet performance. I just didn’t think there was much for her to do.
That’s actually why I’m impressed with it. I think Nat works best when she’s given little to do and then she comes in and shocks us with something surprising and moving – case in point the bit role in Cold Mountain.
Her as Anne Boleyn makes me believe that for the record, Natalie Portman should never play British again.
Her third act, however, in Black Swan is breathtaking. I also still want to see her do seven great years/movies before I can crown her as the best of her generation.
A was pleasantly surprised when I went into a pub I hadn’t been in to before earlier this week and was greeted by a barmaid who looked just like Natalie Portman. The resemblance was uncanny. Maybe it was her but the local Yorkshire accent would hint otherwise. Then again she could be researching for a role as a northern British pint-puller!
Speaking of her best roles, I think Leon being at number one is spot on. To perform so well at such an early age is astonishing.
You should have asked her to take a pic with you.
Good list. I loved V for Vendetta, but although Portman was great in the role, I have to say her English accent was pretty awful at times. And closer was probably one of the most overrated movies of all time.
Still, she was just utterly adorable in Garden State. Especially when she does her original sound that no-one has ever done before.
She’s never been better than she was in Leon and Black Swan– easily her two best performances– but I think Closer isn’t far behind and frankly gets ignored for no palatable reason. She’s legitimately great there, if maybe less front-and-center than her co-stars.
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