What is the greatest acting performance you have ever seen? What made it so great? I would be curious to hear from everybody what ranks highly on their lists. Several performances come to my mind, so I have decided to make a top 10 list. If you have 10, you can tell me 10. If you have 3, you can tell me 3. If they're not in order because you have a hard time ranking, just tell me performances that you love. Here is my list, from 10 down to 1
10. Cuba Gooding Jr. - Radio
9. Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs
8. Robert DeNiro - Awakenings
7. Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote
6. Sean Penn - I am Sam
5. Emily Watson - Breaking the Waves
4. Leonardo DiCaprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
3. Ben Kingsley - House of Sand and Fog
2. Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream
1. Bjork - Dancer in the Dark
If you can pick up a theme, I have the potential to be greatly moved by somebody with a handicap (so does the American public). The only other major connection is that there are 2 of my top 5 performances that take place in a Lars Von Trier film. The highest ranked performance belongs to Bjork in her performance in Dancer in the Dark, which is the film we just recently watched at M.O.M. 2 of my top 3 performances came by supporting actors, isn't that a little weird?
So look at yourselves, what would you put on your list? I want to see some comments here, let's get some thought trains going as to what moves us and why.
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