Top Five Roles: Kate Winslet

Ah, Kate Winslet, how do I love thee?  She was the first actress that I really adored, and while I’m not always terribly enamored with her choices in films, she never disappoints when it comes to her performances.  These five might not objectively be her best (a number of her Oscar-nominated roles aren’t here, and neither is her Oscar win,) but they’re my personal favorites.

Juliet Hulme, Heavenly Creatures

Not quite her earliest role, but the earliest I’ve seen her.  The teenaged Winslet is captivating as Juliet in this true story, about two girls in the 1950s whose intensely-close, wildly fantastical relationship leads to some serious crap going down.  Juliet is such a vivid presence onscreen, it’s no wonder Pauline is obsessed with her, and Winslet completely sells Juliet’s all-consuming devotion to Pauline.  (And on a side note, I think it’s hilarious that someone in Hollywood saw her in this fascinating role and decided to cast her in A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.)

Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility

Austen alum!  Winslet is pitch-perfect as the passionate Marianne, fancifully in love with being in love.  She’s self-involved and overdramatic, and it’s to Winslet’s credit that you sometimes wish Elinor would smack her.  At the same time, though, she’s just all in with everything she does, which keeps her on the right side of endearing.

Hester Wallace, Enigma

Kate Winslet as a Bletchley Park girl breaking German codes and chasing conspiracies in a film with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard?  Yes, please!  Hester is brilliant, brave, and ballsy – exactly the B-words I like in my women.  Also, she’s practically the only woman in the picture, holding her own amidst the likes of Dougray Scott, Jeremy Northam, Matthew Macfadyen, Tom Hollander, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.  I approve.

Bitsey Bloom, The Life of David Gale

As the reporter cherry-picked by death-row inmate David Gale to tell his story, Bitsey is pretty badass.  She’s a fierce reporter known for her journalistic integrity, she attacks the story with deductive relish and old-fashioned legwork (despite the increasing danger involved,) and she has no time for any stupid misogynists she encounters.  What more do you want?

Clementine Kruczynski, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This is the first role that won me over.  Though Clementine seems Manic Pixie at first glance, she defies the notion that she’s anyone’s Dream Girl.  Even when she’s literally just her ex-boyfriend’s memories of her, she maintains agency, displaying intelligence, toughness, vulnerability, and a laundry list of faults.  There’s so much to unpack here, and Winslet pulls it off tremendously.