3. Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev - Enemy At The Gates (2001)
There's no doubting that Jude Law was dedicated to his performance here, which comes as no surprise given that Enemy Of The Gates was poised to be "the new Saving Private Ryan". Still, that doesn't mean that what he puts in here is entirely convincing. The movie itself concerns the battle of Stalingrad, and Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, a sniper from the Urals, who supposedly shot and kill 500 Nazis with his sniper rifle. For some reason, though, Law, who plays, Zaitsev, talks in a weird and oddly forced cockney accent for the sum of the movie - it's off-putting, to say the least. Okay, so a bad accent isn't necessarily a good reason to criticise a performance, but it's hard to believe in Zaitsev as a character when he sounds so ridiculous - especially in a movie that demands we really believe in the authenticity of the time period and setting. Unfortunately, none of Enemy At The Gates is really up to scratch, which only serves to enforce the off-key nature of Law's performance here. It also didn't help that his chemistry with love interest Rachel Weisz felt flat and lacking.