Reds, when Diane Keaton sees the covered body being taken off the train and she turns and closes her eyes in pain, then opens them and sees Warren Beatty just looking at her.
Yeah, I was going to say Jenna Haze.
But seriously… There’s a great moment in Almost Famous where Kate Hudson goes through an impressive range of emotions after hearing some bad news.
Jack Nicholson The Shining
I was going to mention this . Especially the scene where the mother and sun are playing in the snow and he’s watching them with this look on his face. Not quite the same in a still photo but in the scene it’s very menacing and very effective.
Not a movie…
But Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad in the last season, second to last episode (IIRC)
When he is on the phone with Skylar knowing the police are listening, and he is telling her how she was nothing and he was the brains of everything. His voice was giving off hate and rage, while he face was showing is pain and heartbreak.
Dog Day Afternoon — Al Pacino and John Cazale are in the process of robbing a bank. Blinds are drawn, employees are herded into a corner. The phone on a manager’s desk rings; Pacino tells him to answer it. The manager says, “Hello?” listens a minute, and then holds the phone out to Pacino. “It’s for you.”
A dozen different thoughts flash across Pacino’s face in about 5 seconds.
I recorded Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid when it aired recently on TCM. Not much of a film except for some scenes with James Coburn.* When he did his famous grin. Yow. For a guy who generally played tough guys, when you see him grin like that you know somebody else is going to get hurt.
But that grin also worked well in lighter fare like the Flint movies and The President’s Analyst.
Ebert titled an article based on Coburn’s grin.
- Well, and all the usual western actors: Chill Wills, Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor and of course Harry Dean Stanton.
The movie Timecode was interesting, although not really a great movie. But there is a scene early in the movie where Stellan Skarsgard is on the phone trying to conduct a business call just after his wife has told him she wants a divorce (IIRC). He’s trying to keep it together, alternating between breaking down when he’s not talking, and controlling himself when he is. You find out later that Skarsgard is not exactly the husband of the year, but that scene is still heartbreaking.
Christina Ricci in the Addams Family, when she painfully summons a smile. It’s terrifying.
Clint Eastwood. When every muscle on his face goes to stone, his eye starts twitching, (left or right, I don’t remember right now) and shit’s about to get very real.
For Clint Eastwood, it was that one where he brought the guy on horse back to the middle of now where. The guy asked with sarcasm, “You’re not going to kill me now, are you?” Clint just regarded him with that stony stare. Then it dawned on the other guy, “You’re not gonna leave me here, are you?” The mildest, thinnest smile broke on Clint’s mouth.
When George shoots Lenny in Mice of Men
Lon Chaney in The Unknown (1927), when he learns that Joan Crawford has overcome her phobia about being touched, and realizes that he had his arms amputated needlessly.
It’s a Tod Browning movie, so you know it’s a total sickfest.
Bruce Campbell in the Evil Dead movies.
Broken Embraces
Penelope Cruz is mistress to a man she’s grown to loathe. When She comes out of the bathroom to find him sprawled across the bed in an awkward position, by all appearances dead, her face goes from shock to neutral to relief to enthusiasm without saying a word.
Emma Thompson in Love, Actually when she realizes the necklace was for someone else, and she goes into the bedroom for a quick sob, then pulls herself together for her kids.
Lillian Gish in the closet scene in Broken Blossoms.
Patty Duke at the water pump in The Miracle Worker.
Yes, I was going to mention this one. Elation, happiness, satisfaction and oh shit, what have we done!
Anthony Hopkins was mentioned in the OP and it’s not a movie, but I have to point out his facial expression in Westworld when Bernard is being blamed for the software update. Everyone knew it was Ford (Hopkins), but Bernard was taking the fall and Hopkins held the most incredibly menacing look on his face that I couldn’t recreate if I tried. Can’t find the video of it, but it was chilling.
That scene is my number one.
Also Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides, in the scene where he tells what happened the night the “three dogs” came to their house.
Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive: The audition and, in particular, the beginning of the second part of the film, after she wakes up and makes coffee.
Jim Carrey in The Truman Show. Pretty good in The Mask, too.
Almost anything M. Emmet Walsh has done. Not the most expressive face, but he manages to convey quite a lot.