1. Dickie Greenleaf - The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Here it is: the performance that made Jude Law an international star and the one he's still probably best remembered for -and it's not at all hard to see why: the actor's role as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley is without a doubt his most accomplished work to date. Many people will think on The Talented Mr. Ripley as Matt Damon's film, of course, but it's Jude Law who audiences went home thinking about - he was even nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, one which many people still think he deserved to win (he lost to Michael Caine). In the movie, the eponymous Mr. Ripley meets Dickie Greenleaf, a Princeton graduate, and insinuates himself in his life. What made this such a stand-out effort for Jude Law, then? Roger Ebert might've summed it up perfectly in his review: "Beyond being devastatingly good-looking, Mr. Law gives Dickie the manic, teasing powers of manipulation that make him ardently courted by every man or woman he knows." In other words, we had to believe that Law's character could really possess the gravitational pull that we see on screen. Law makes it look all too easy.