Wednesday
Jun202012
What's Your Number One Nicole?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 4:50PM .
.JA from MNPP here, daring to tackle one of Nathaniel's sacred cows on her 45th birthday - the lovely and not at all cow-like yet entirely sacred, the very very talented Nicole Kidman. Earlier today I was reading through this fine list by the fine folks at The Playlist of what they deem her five greatest performances (all lists will be null and void once she pees on Zac Efron) and they're all choices that are pretty darn hard to argue with (my own personal favorite is easily To Die For)... and yet, yet! I still feel nagged at by the absence of Alice in Eyes Wide Shut...
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... and Grace in The Others...
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...and what the heck about Satine?!?!?
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But then this is Kidman, and the riches run very deep.
So what's your favorite Nicole Kidman performance?
Quick, just one!
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tagged Birthday, Nicole Kidman
Birthday, Nicole Kidman
Reader Comments (77)
1.moulin rouge(oscar worthy)
2.the hours(a typical oscar worthy one but not that year)
3.the others
4.to die for
5.dogvill
6.rabbit hole
7.birth
Birth, Margot at the Wedding, and Rabbit Hole. Can't pick one.
Moulin Rouge! is what started my love affair with Kidman though, so I feel bad not including it. She's very rarely spectacular in my book and one of the few actresses that I will watch in ANYTHING (I even watched Trespass for this woman!). And surely one of the bravest of her contemporaries. She doesn't give a shit about her characters being lovable or cuddly and I find that to be so fantastic and brave for someone who is so well known and such a red carpet fixture. It would be easy for her to constantly do oscar bait or safe dramas but she rarely, if ever, does that. Forever part of my holy quadruple (can't limit it to a trinity) along with Tilda Swinton, Juliette Binoche, and Isabelle Huppert.
And that should be "is very rarely NOT spectacular."
Duh.
[Okay, shoot me. I don't care for Nicole Kidman's acting. I think she is the most overrated acrtess working today.]
Yet you're entirely mum about the real overrated working actress of today.
B I R T H
Birth, closely followed by Margot At The Wedding.
I must also give a shout-out to her (forgotten in the above comments) great work in Australia - how she goes from 1940s comedy heroine to protective mother through the film and makes the character, well, a SINGLE CHARACTER and not 2 different scripts stitched together. I always use this film as the example of her being a gifted comedienne - it's just that her comedy vehicles are usually shoddy films in general.
I also have a soft spot for her in The Interpreter - I can't justify my love for that film...
My favourite performance of hers probably is To Die For, closely followed by Birth. When I revist the latter it becomes my favourite one, but then, I rewatch To Die For again and it jumps to the first place LOL
To Die For
A perfect performance. In my top 5 all time.
Even Sean Penn liked it so much that he sent her a telegram saying "You were robbed" when she wasn't nominated for that.
Picking one is so hard. But I've got to go with Birth, in which Kidman is solely responsible for that film going from mediocre to incredible.
Birth!
Dogville!
She's simply the best!
My favourites are "To die for", "The others" and "Eyes wide shut"!
My favourite... just one is very difficult. Since The Hours is my favourite film I should say Virginia, but I discovered her in The Interpreter so Silvia Broome is a really important favourite. Then Satine, and then well, almost all.
TO DIE FOR, just because it's got everything: the comedy, the sex, the ice princess...
After that, in alphabetical order, because that's how I roll: Moulin Rouge, The Others, Rabbit Hole.
Haven't seen: Margot At the Wedding, Dogville, Birth.
I would also like to stick up for Australia. Both her performance and the film in general. Neither are brilliant, but they are far better than anyone gives them credit for.
The Others. Brittle suits her.
margot at the wedding! in spades.
1) MOULIN ROUGE
2) THE OTHERS
3) TO DIE FOR
4) EYES WIDE SHUT
5) THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
6) BIRTH
7) THE HOURS
8) RABBIT HOLE
9) DOGVILLE
10) DEAD CALM
MOULIN ROUGE... until my dying day. :)
She's perfect as Satine. Of course, she was excellent in so many films, but Satine takes it all for me (followed by Woolf in The Hours and Becca in Rabbit Hole).
@Patryk
Far and Away is vastly underrated...it's old school epic Hollywood entertainment. Cruise and Kidman have undeniable comedic chemistry in the film....rewatch it...it holds up.
Uh, I'm not a huge Nicole fan either (so shoot me). I think she's pretty good in most things. If I said I liked her most in Flirting and Dead Calm I guess you'd see that I think she's squandered her promise. Sorry everyone. Hiding head in shame.
Moulin Rouge for me, and here's why: Satine started out as a bit of a cartoon, and over the course of the film, Kidman made her a real flesh and blood person.
It's Satine, although my favorite NK movie is Birth.
Dave -- I love her in Flirting too. But i don't think she squandered it :) She only built from there
"The Others"
1. The Others
2. To Die for
3. Birth
4. Dogville
5. Moulin Rouge
Birth (don't like the hair though)
Anyone remember Dead Calm or the TV drama Bankok Hilton? You could tell then she had great talent.
Eyes Wide Shut