2. Robin Williams - One Hour Photo (1997)
Robin Williams found fame as Mork on the hugely popular TV show
Mork and Mindy, and to be fair to him, has racked up a string of Academy Award nominations for his dramatic work, earning nods for
Good Morning, Vietnam,
Dead Poets Society, The Fisher King, and then finally winning the gong outright - in the Supporting Actor category - for
Good Will Hunting. While these films were all undeniably dramatic, it's the left-field career choice Williams made in 2002 that really made us pay attention, playing a lonely, obsessive photo booth employee in Mark Romanek's superb
One Hour Photo. We knew Williams could play it straight, but I doubt anyone expected him to concoct something so inherently creepy and disturbing. What begins as a subtle performance depicting a timid, pleasant older man, slowly transforms into something much more insidious, and in its final reel, overblown, as his Seymour Parrish goes full-tilt psychopath. His obsession with a local family indulges the full measure of madness, as he forces the adulterous Will (Michael Vartan) to pose naked with his mistress while he takes pictures of it. Right through to the ambiguous climax, Williams' performance conveys an unfortunate soul who is both an unsettling presence and a sad one too. Subsequently, Williams also disturbed us in Christopher Nolan's excellent thriller
Insomnia, and delivered a fantastic, Award-worthy performance in
World's Greatest Dad.