10 Actors Who Reclaimed Some Dignity In 2017

Dignity plays a fickle part in the film business. One minute you're riding the waves of success, pumping out hit after hit, box office smash after box office smash, then suddenly you've made a load of flops in a row, and your taste and integrity are being called into question faster than you can say "Adam Sandler."

Just ask Michael Fassbender who, a few years back, made X-Men: Days of Future Past, Slow West, Macbeth, and Steve Jobs back to back, only to have turned out a mighty seven critical flops in a row over the last two years, culminating in recent misfire The Snowman.

But Hollywood can act as a place of rebirth as often as it can act as a place of failure and terrible choices that should never have happened. Actors who have lost their dignity through a series of flops, critical bombs, or misjudged performances can suddenly find themselves back on top again.

Take the following actors, for example, whose careers were either on a downward slope or struggling to make an impact, only for each of them to somehow bounce back again in some fashion over the span of 2017. Pray that it continues.

Where It All Went Wrong: Queen of the Desert, Secret in Their Eyes, Genius

The Redeeming Movie(s): The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Beguiled

Across the span of the last decade or so, Nicole Kidman - once Hollywood's biggest and best loved actress - has struggled to find the right projects. Even Werner Herzog couldn't even help her out with Gertrude Bell biopic Queen of the Desert.

But 2017 has brought Nicole Kidman back to the forefront and she seems to have, once again, found her groove. The best decision she's made is to stay away from overblown blockbusters and unnecessary remakes in favour of the indie scene. As an extremely talented and visceral actor, she's always felt right at home in weirder, more artistic fare (check her out in Jonathan Glazer's Birth, for example).

So in the wake of disasters such as Secret in Their Eyes, 2017 has seen Kidman in both The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Beguiled, two independent films in which she plays twisted female types, and - for some reason - appears alongside Colin Farrell in both. The first film is out and out weird, and Kidman is appropriately icy throughout; the latter gives her a chance to play properly demented.

In both cases, the performances feel like her best and most focused in years. Here's hoping that next year's Aquaman, in which Kidman will star as Queen Atlanna, doesn't end up doing her career any further damage.