Julia Roberts: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

1. Vivian Ward - Pretty Woman (1990)

Mystic Pizza might have been the role that kicked off Roberts' career - and it almost made the cut here for that very reason - but Pretty Woman is the performance that confirmed her as a star. The rags-to-illgotten-riches story of Vivian Ward and her high-powered, not-quite-as-complex-as-he-might-think trick Edward is far from a morality tale, and it could have been even more successful had it stuck to the darker original script that explored drug dependency more overtly, but it's a curiously likable affair. She might be playing an egotistical, self-centred and self-destructive prostitute, opposite a guarded, cold businessman, but Roberts manages not only to add affection to Vivian, she also makes her adorable. She is probably the best loved street-walker in all of entertainment history, and though the story is remarkably charitable in its depiction of her revelation (she realises being bad isn't that good as soon as she is showered with affection and high-priced gifts,) the quality and human impact of the performance is precisely why this grubby little fairy tale has become the enduring symbol of romantic films that it now is. And now, on to the worst performances in Roberts' career, starting just beyond the second star to the right...