Jeremy Irons: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances...

5. Humbert Humbert - Lolita (1997)

Vladimir Nabokov couldn't have written the character of Humbert Humbert with Jeremy Irons in mind, and yet watching Adrian Lyne's 1997 adaptation of his seminal novel, Lolita, it certainly feels as though he might have. Irons is best when playing characters who manage to provoke our sympathies and our disgust in equal measure, after all, and there are few monsters in fiction as likeable as Humbert Humbert. Irons is the best thing about Lyne's otherwise flawed take on the book, which centres on a European professor of French Literature whose infatuation with the pre-pubescent "nymphet" of the movie's title leads him to disaster. He plays Humbert as though his attraction were a mere romantic affliction, and - given the sensitive nature of his obsession - brilliantly emphasises his feelings using subtle facial expressions. From the moment Irons opens his mouth, the actor embodies Humbert as if he were born to play him; hearing the actor speak Nabokov's words is a match made in heaven. It's no wonder that, after the film's release, he recorded an audiobook of his reading the novel.