Jeremy Irons: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

4. Esteban Trueba - The House Of The Spirits (1993)

In Bille August's ill-judged adaptation of Isabel Allende's famous 1982 novel of the same name - which chronicles three generations of a South American family - Jeremy Irons is wrongly cast as the Hispanic land owner Esteban Trueba - another curious case of the actor being hired on his apparent ability to appear as a member of any race. Such a theory is throughly disproved here: Irons doesn't feel Latin in the slightest, and brings far too much majesty to a role that should have been a lot softer around the edges. Though he ages convincingly across the span of the picture, his presence feels false. It's not just Irons who feels out of place; none of the main cast, which includes Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder and Glenn Close, fit the material. Antonio Banderas is the one actor who appears even the slightest bit authentic, and even he feels ill-suited. What should have been a far less serious affair was intellectualised all out of proportion in this adaptation, and it's Irons - cast as the face of solemnity - who ends up taking the fall.