Christina Applegate: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Debbie Griswold - Vacation (2015)

Vacation opens in the UK this week on the back of a mediocre box-office showing across the pond. Applegate plays the now all-growed-up Rusty Griswold's (Ed Helms) wife Debbie, in a part that asks her to do little else but look beleaguered. The film's not without redeeming features, but a lot of those tend to be cameos (Chris Hemsworth's well endowed TV personality and Charlie Day's unhinged outdoors-man are highlights), leaving the core cast to wallow through a selection of hit and miss onscreen humiliations. Applegate gets her fair share (shameful personal histories and bodily functions at the ready!) but too often she's just sitting idly, letting the movie pass her by. It's rare to observe Applegate looking like a passenger, but in Vacation she's content to ghost, only coming to life when the film requires her to endure some sort of over the top embarrassment. Not ideal for an actress who thrives in smaller, dialogue driven scenes.