Paul Bettany: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Charles Darwin - Creation (2009)

It's quite unusual for two actors to work together when they are husband and wife, and even more unusual when they have children together. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (while not actually married) make a point of never working at the same time, so there is always someone there to raise their six children properly. Creation marked the first time that Bettany and Connelly had worked together since A Beautiful Mind - and considering the results, they should do so more often. Creation is a partially-fictionalised biography of Charles Darwin in the years leading up to the writing of On The Origin of Species. It focuses on his relationships with his deeply religious wife (Connelly) and their eldest daughter Annie (Martha West), who appears largely in flashbacks. As Darwin's theories come together upon his return from the Galapagos Islands, it puts a strain on his marriage, which is exacerbated when his contemporaries begin accusing him (or praising him) for "killing God". Creation comes with a fair amount of talent behind it: it's produced by Jeremy Thomas, whose credits include The Last Emperor and Naked Lunch, and it's directed by Jon Amiel, who made The Singing Detective. But its greatest asset is Bettany, who brilliantly conveys the burden the main character is under and which he almost chooses for himself. It's a complex performance of conflicting desires and reluctance which deserves a wider audience than it initially received. It's also not the last of Darwin that we'll see on this list...