Hugh Jackman: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked
2. Robert Angier The Prestige (2006)
Back to his usual wheelhouse, though, and Jackman can rarely be topped. Even when you set him in direct opposition to method actor of the decade Christian Bale, who still lives at the top of many people's best performer list despite making Terminator: Salvation and attacking his family that one time. Ah, fame, you not-so-fickle mistress. Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Christopher Priest's novel works so well because it plays to each actor's strengths: Bale plays the lesser-known, but perhaps smarter and closer to true genius illusionist Alfred Boden he's intense, unpredictable, and cagey; Jackman, meanwhile, is consummate performer Robert Angier. It's Angier who really leads the film, rather than it being an even two-hander, as his pursuit to best Boden tips him over into the unnatural (with the help of David Bowie as an historically inaccurate Nikola Tesla), the fraying edges beginning to show in both his personal life and on stage, where he's otherwise at his most confident.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/