50 God-Tier Acting Moments Buried in Bad Movies

Julia Roberts has often been nicknamed America's Sweetheart, and she's perhaps most commonly associated with crowd-pleasing blockbusters and romantic comedies. She's delightful in such parts, but Roberts is also a fantastic dramatic actress who's not to be underestimated. 

Anyone who doubts that should be shown this scene from 2015's Secret in Their Eyes, where her character - Investigator Jess Cobb - finds her daughter murdered. Thanks to Roberts' harrowing performance, this moment is almost unbearably difficult to watch. She's consistently strong throughout the rest of the movie, too, as Jess tries to get justice for her daughter. 

The 2010s weren't the most fruitful time for Roberts, and she was in quite a few duds, so this performance is easily one of the high points from that period in her career. Ironically, Secret in Their Eyes is one of those duds. A remake of the 2009 Argentinian crime thriller The Secret in Their Eyes, this movie is one of those projects that seemed doomed from the very beginning, as the original film's story - adapted from Eduardo Sacheri's 2005 novel - is so closely tied to Argentinian history that relocating it to an American setting was never going to work. 

Sure enough, the film is a confused and often dreary, if excellently acted, affair. Nevertheless, despite the commendable efforts of actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts absolutely owns this movie. It's likely that the scene where she finds her daughter's body will be the only part of this movie you actually remember.