Keira Knightley: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

This week US audiences can enjoy Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, a reboot of the popular character created by Tom Clancy who hasn't been seen on screen since The Sum of All Fears in 2002. Chris Pine steps into the title role previously played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, and there are strong hopes that this film, under the direction of Kenneth Branagh, will reignite the franchise after Clancy's death last year.

There are a number of reasons to be excited by Jack Ryan, which reaches British audiences in a week's time. Pine has proven himself through Star Trek to be a very capable leading man, and I've already professed my love for Branagh's directorial work in my article on Shakespeare two months ago. But the film is also notable as Keira Knightley's return to the mainstream, after several years of concentrating on theatre and smaller, more independently-spirited films. Knightley has had her fair share of critics over the years, with Mark Kermode labelling her "Ikea Knightley" at the height of her Pirates of the Caribbean days. But like many actors we're covered on this section of the site, she also has her moments when she is paired with a proper director, as her collaborations with Joe Wright testify. So before you go about shadowing her in Jack Ryan, let's take a look back at the highs and lows of Keira's career. Let's kick off (in more ways than one) with a very British offering...