Every Cillian Murphy Movie Ranked Worst To Best

34. Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003)

This hollow exploration of the origin of the Johannes Vermeer painting Girl with a Pearl Earring stars Murphy in one of his least challenging roles, and for a rare spell he does little to elevate what he's given.

As a potential love interest to the eponymous character (Scarlett Johansson), soon to be immortalised in one of the most revered of Baroque portraits, Murphy is lovelorn and inoffensively there, but there's no moment where he's allowed to break away and give his role any new depth.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is dull enough, but to waste Murphy (as well as Johansson, for that matter) is bordering on the unforgivable.