3. Virginia Woolf - The Hours (2002)
Nicole Kidman donned a prosthetic nose for her performance as Virginia Woolf in The
Hours, and the actress become the subject of much polite teasing when she was nominated for an Oscar in the aftermath. Prosthetics aside, Kidman gives what is possibly her greatest and most representative performance ever in Stephen Daldry's ambitious and critically-acclaimed movie about three generations of woman each connected to Woolf's novel
Mrs. Dalloway. To play Woolf, Kidman infuses her character with a lower vocal range and grants the novelist a number of tics, none of which feel shoe-horned in for the sake of it, but serve instead to enrich Woolf as a real human being. In fact, there is so much passion and feeling inherit in Kidman's performance, it was really no wonder she nabbed an Oscar. As a showcase for Kidman the actress, this is arguably her definitive performance.