10 Brilliant Performances Trapped In Terrible Recent Movies

10. Natalie Portman - Lucy In The Sky

Noah Hawley - the creator of FX's terrific Fargo series - made his crushingly disappointing directorial debut with this fantastically-premised drama about an astronaut, Lucy Cola (Natalie Portman), who struggles to re-adjust to normal life when returning home from a space mission.

Touted as a serious Oscar contender prior to its release, Lucy in the Sky ultimately turned out to be a peculiar car crash of a film, an initially intriguing yet baffling collision of half-baked ideas, unconvincing character psychology, and quasi-laughable melodrama.

And yet, standing amid the carnage is Natalie Portman, who delivers a performance of such restrained resolve despite Hawley's pretentious filmmaking that she very nearly saves the entire damn thing.

Clearly, with a stronger script and more assured direction, Portman would've been a contender for the Best Actress Oscar, but instead everyone was simply left lamenting what never will be.