Brokeback Mountain sealed the deal with Heath Ledger for me. I couldn’t believe I was watching the same guy from A Knight’s Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You.
Shattered Glass: huh. Hayden Christensen’s actually pretty decent if you give him a semi-intelligible script to work with.
Jim Carrey in The Truman Show - He doesn’t go crazy in this movie until his character is under some extreme stress, and then it makes sense for him to act that way. He just generally comes off as a slightly kooky guy who is noticing his world isn’t quite right.
Jerry Orbach in Prince of the City. Until then, he was just a good song-and-dance man. Who knew he could act?
And I think of Hugh Laurie in the reverse–he was just a damn good British slapstick comedy song-and-dance man. It wasn’t until House that I recognized his acting abilities and his range.
I had such a moment seeing Lindsay Lohan in the Prairie Home Companion movie. There’s a scene where she’s talking to Garrison Keillor about her father and a story about the kite, that’s very well done. ‘Damn, she really can act.’ I thought.
For me, the Hugh Laurie moment was in Sense and Sensibility. I had seen *Blackadder * and Jeeves and Wooster, so I knew him as a broad comic actor, but there he had maybe 3 minutes on screen to portray a very complex character, and he nailed it.
This is what came to my mind after reading the OP. All my friends look at me like I’m from Mars when I say I can see him eventually becoming like Tom Hanks due to this role. Let’s see…goofy, comedic actor who slowly, but firmly, becomes respected for strong, dramatic acting skills…yep, entirely within the realm of possibility.
Before that, he had a five minute scene in a Roseanne that was brilliant. And before that, there was Angels in the Outfield, where he holds his own acting-wise with Danny Glover and Christopher Lloyd.
Marshall Mathers left me impresseed with 8 Mile, but that could be because my expectations were so low.
On a related note I thought Courtney Love did a great job playing a crack whore in The People vs. Larry Flynt…but well, was that acting?
*** I’m scratching the bottom of the barrel here, you guys took all the good ones.
No that’s a good one, he did an amazing job. And you reminded me by mentioning 8 Mile how impressed I was by Brittany Murphy in Freeway. God, I didn’t even recognize her until I was listening to the commentary. Keifer as well - I’ve been vaguely terrified of him ever since.
I always though of Cameron Diaz as just another pretty face until I saw her in Very Bad Things followed by Being John Malkovich. That woman is hampered by some poor film choices, but she can act.
Cate Blanchette in the underrated, utterly amazing Australian film Little Fish. I’d seen her in Elizabeth and as Galadriel, but she never made any impression on me. In Little Fish she’s at the center of a stellar cast, and blew me away.
I discovered that Cameron Diaz could act when I watched “In her Shoes” - Also in that film Shirley Maclaine does NOT play Shirley Maclaine, as she usually seems too.
and "Freeway’ is where I realized Reese Witherspoon could act, tho I didn’t really like the movie.
Ok, I’ll second (or third, or fourth) Will Farrell in Stranger Than Fiction. I’m easy to amuse and like a lot of his less intellectually challenging roles… but Stranger Than Fiction really stuck with me.
Now, all the mention of Keanu Reeves has got me to thinking I should watch **Little Buddha ** again to see if this would qualify. Has anyone seen that movie recently and care to weigh in on it?
Oh, and I forgot to mention (while we’re on a Keanu Reeves kick) the woman that played Gabriel in Constantine. (I should look these names up, as well as spellings, but I trust you all will know who I’m talking about)
The terrifying and amazing Tilda Swinton, but I can’t say I’ve ever not been impressed by her. Unimpressed by some of her film choices, perhaps, but she’s always very watchable.