10 Movies That Salvaged Terrible Characters

8. Rachel Dawes - The Dark Knight

Rick Flag
Warner Bros.

It's pretty hard to look past the two genre-defining turns given by Christian Bale and Heath Ledger when discussing the performances that stole the show in Christopher Nolan's legendary The Dark Knight epic.

However, away from those unquestionably iconic portrayals, another appearance also pulled off a rather laudable feat; helping to salvage perhaps the previous film's biggest flaw.

Katie Holmes is by no means a terrible actor, but she never seemed to gel with the rest of the stellar cast as she tried and ultimately failed to make Rachel Dawes feel like someone Bruce Wayne was willing to give up his cape for.

Fast forward three years from Batman Begins, and the recasting of Dawes, with Maggie Gyllenhaal now taking up the role of Gotham City's assistant district attorney, helped reimagine the character into a much more captivating and complex character. Despite, clearly making us believe in Rachel's complicated love for Bruce, Gyllenhaal was also able to convincingly make us understand her reasons for wanting to spend the rest of her life with Harvey Dent instead.

She may have only had one film to make an impact, but Maggie more than delivered the goods.

Contributor
Contributor

Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...