4. Adam Sandler - Reign Over Me (2007)
Here's a performance just about no-one was expecting; after forging a decade-plus career playing the aggressive but likeable goof-ball character in everything from
Billy Madison to
Little Nicky, Adam Sandler first made it clear that he was capable of more subtle drama in Paul Thomas Anderson's cracking romantic dramedy
Punch Drunk Love. However, for Sandler, the one-two punch would come in 2007, starring in a little-seen relationship drama
Reign Over Me, playing Charlie Fineman, a man who lost his wife and daughter in the 9/11 attacks. Stewing in his own despair ever since, he has a chance encounter with an old friend, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), who tries to get him back on the straight and narrow. Sandler's performance is for the most part an extremely subtle depiction of a grief-stricken man; not only completely looking the part, this is a timid, broken down Sandler like we've never seen, and he completely pulls it off. Later in the film, he gets to revert to the louder, angrier Sandler we're more familiar with, but it still serves a more noble purpose, and accentuates a film that should be less-chided for "exploiting" a national tragedy, but rather rewarded for confronting it so bravely. Since, aside from a strong performance in the self-reflexive
Funny People, Sandler has pretty much deferred to his regular shtick, disappointingly.