Julia Roberts: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances

5. Anna - Closer (2004)

Her performance as photographer and philanderess Anna might not have drawn the same kid of adulation as other performances in the cast - particularly those of Natalie Portman and Clive Owen - but Roberts' role in the bruising, enduringly nasty screen version of Patrick Marber's stage classic. She is captivating, but removed, and there's an intangible magic about her that makes Jude Law's infatuation with her completely authentic within the realms of the film. Yes, the end result of the film is that you're probably baffled as to why any of these people even want to exist in the same world as each other, so pronounced is their verbal voilence towards one another, and so nasty their spirits, but that's entirely the point. The agenda here is for beautiful people to act despicably, and all of the four main cast members cope admirably, despite having to sacrifice something of their easy appeal in the agenda. With the other three younger, eager actors alongside her, it would have been easy for Roberts to be swallowed up, and made to look non-commital, and even lazy by comparison, but that isn't the case, and each stand on equal footing. Which makes it wonderfully easy to hate them all about the same amount.