Tim Roth: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Guildenstern - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

Gary Oldman? Tim Roth? In the same movie? Who'd have thought it? The little seen and very, very underrated comedy Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (penned by the one and only Tom Stoppard) sets its sights upon two minor characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet and shows us what happens when those characters are off-screen and disappear from the play. Mostly it's hi-jinks, and here Roth shows us why he's a talented theatre actor and a certified movie star in one deft performance. Did we also mention that Gary Oldman's in this? A lot of the movie is built around wordplay and miscommunication, and requires Roth - who plays Guildenstern, though he's not entirely sure of the fact throughout - to inhabit the screen with a mischievousness, but he's not unsympathetic either. As mentioned previously, it's the chemistry he shares with Gary Oldman that really makes this a great performance, however (many critics have cited this as one of Oldman's best ever movies, too) - even if Rosencrantz & Guildenstern is pretty much just a filmed play, it proves a perfect showcase for Roth's talents.