Our Favorite and Least Favorite Performances of 2005

Russell Crowe delivered one of Eric's favorite performances of 2005 in Cinderella Man.

There are so many elements that go into making a movie stand out as something special, but without a doubt it is the performances by the actors that can make or break a movie. A truly great performance can overcome weaknesses in a script or incompetence by a director. At the same time, an awful performance can drag a great movie down into mere mediocrity. Here then are our choices for the best and worst performances by an actor and actress for 2005.

Our Favorite Performances of 2005

Eric:
Russell Crowe's public outburst toward a hotel employee over shadowed his great performance in Cinderella Man. His sensitive portrayal of this larger than life character made him all to human.

Reese Witherspoon has done the dippy blonde as well as Marilyn Monroe. This year, in Walk the Line, she does a country singer as well as Sissy Spacek. Joaquin Phoenix is getting all the buzz as the drugged up singer with daddy issues, but Witherspoon is the true heart of the movie.

Patrick:
Heath Ledger gets my vote for favorite performance by a man in 2005. His Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain is one of the great characterizations of all time. I honestly didn't think he had as much talent as he does. He doesn't make a false move or gesture in the entire movie.

My favorite performance by a woman belongs to Idina Menzel as Maureen Johnson in Rent. She struts her stuff all over the screen and proves to be that rare jewel, a triple threat diva.

Scott:
Pierce Brosnan played up his Bond image in The Matador, which has to be my favorite performance by an actor. His broken down hitman is pitifully hilarious and human.

For reasons I can't fathom, Gwyneth Paltrow's performance in Proof is being overlooked, as is the movie itself. Her portrayal of the mathmatical genius dealing with the death of her father while questioning her own sanity is not only worthy of praise, but stands out as my choice for performance by an actress for 2005.

Our Least Favorite Performances of 2005

Eric:
Ryan Reynolds nearly turns The Amityville Horror into a Lifetime Original Movie. His portrayal of a possessed man comes across more as a father who just needs a vacation instead of an exorcism.

Jessica Alba looks great in The Fantastic Four and Into the Blue. In The Fantastic Four you are at least occasionaly distracted from her mundane acting with action and special effects. In Into the Blue the only thing to distract you from her poor acting is her small costumes.

Patrick:
Orlando Bloom, in Elizabethtown, gave my least favorite performance by a man last year. In my review I wrote he did a decent job with the material, but this is only partly true. The script IS horrible but a more talented actor could have breathed a bit more life into it.

My least favorite performance by a woman would have to be Jennifer Lopez in An Unfinished Life. It's not that she is completely awful, just that compared to Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman she sucks. The part called for someone with a bit more dramatic fire. She brings down the entire movie.

Scott:
It might not be entirely his fault, since at least part of the blame must be put upon the director, but Matthew Broderick's performance as Leo Bloom in the film adaptation of The Producers is so grotesquely over-the-top as to be laughably amateurish.

Although Kiera Knightly would redeem herself later in the year in Pride and Prejudice, her performance in Domino as a 'tough' bounty hunter is the supreme example of bad casting in a bad movie with a bad script and is certainly my least favorite performance by an actress in 2005.