Kate Winslet: Top Five/Bottom Five

Kate's got Oscar buzz, but her roles haven't always been statuette-worthy. We round up her best and worst.
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in 'Eternel Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in 'Eternel Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' - Focus Features
Erin Nolan

Kate Winslet is the youngest actress to have ever been nominated for five Oscars. Unfortunately, she's also the youngest actress to have already lost five Oscars. She may have two more chances this year, with her meaty, dramatic roles in Revolutionary Road and The Reader both generating strong buzz. But before we start making predictions on when Kate will finally get to make her first trip to the podium, let's take a look back at the best and worst of her career:

Top Five

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: It's kind of ironic that Kate gave her most unforgettable performance in a movie about a pair of wounded ex-lovers who erase each other from their memories. You can't help but breathe a sigh of relief when Jim Carrey's sad sack Joel realizes that he's made a mistake in trying to forget about Kate's flawed, fiery Clementine.

Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility2. Sense and Sensibility: Kate scored her first Oscar nomination in Emma Thompson and Ang Lee's crisp adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. Thompson brought the sense, while Kate brought her most passionate sensibility.

Kate Winslet in Titanic3. Titanic: There was a small cry of outrage (especially amongst teenage girls) when Kate was nominated for an Academy Award for the blockbuster romance while her on-screen lover Leonardo DiCaprio went unrecognized. But when you watch Titanic closely, you realize it's not really the story of a ship that sinks, it's the story of a woman who learns to truly live. It was Kate's job to make us care about what happened on that ship, and clearly she succeeded.

Kate Winslet in Little Children4. Iris and Little Children: I'm lumping Kate's other two Oscar-nominated performances together because they're both good examples of what makes her such a special actress -- her commitment to small, challenging and often dark roles. Kate puts her need to be challenged as an actor above any type of desire to ever earn Titanic-like money again.

5. Extras: Kate's riotous guest appearance on the Ricky Gervais comedy proved that she's not only good at losing Oscars (a fact which she hilariously mocks on the show), but also at losing Emmys. Won't someone please just give this woman a trophy already?

Bottom Five

Kate Winslet in All The King's Men1. All The King's Men: Kate doesn't need to feel too guilty over the critical and commercial failure of this remake. Sean Penn, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, James Gandolfini and a few other Hollywood all-stars probably thought it was going to turn out okay while they were making it too.

2. Flushed Away: At least Kate can take comfort in the fact that it was only her voice that appeared in this Finding Nemo rip-off.

3. Romance and Cigarettes: Much like All the King's Men, you can't blame Kate for thinking this ambitious-sounding musical could've turned out to be an interesting project. Unfortunately, the end result wasn't even an interesting mess.

Kate Winslet in The Holiday4. The Holiday: It pains me to have to put this one on the list as it's a guilty pleasure of mine. But Kate's first foray into the world of romantic comedies isn't especially unique or intelligent -- and those are two qualities we've come to expect from her. It's still an entertaining chick flick, though. And it speaks volumes about Kate's talent that I have to put a movie in her bottom five that I don't even really have anything bad to say about.

5. Finding Neverland: Here's another movie I don't really think was that bad; I just think Kate was wasted in it. The story belonged to Johnny Depp. Kate delivered a moving performance as the ill-fated mother of four adorable boys who befriend the author of Peter Pan. But there wasn't much for her to do in the movie other than cough and look weary. Kate's one of the best actresses working today. Directors should know better than to cast her unless they're going to give her a chance to show us what she's really capable of.


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