Julia Roberts, 5 Best Acting Roles

Romantic Comedies Hide Roberts' Talent, Acting Abilities

Apr 1, 2009

Julia Roberts, despite an Oscar win, is not often seen as a serious actress, but more of a celebrity. This shouldn't always be so, as seen in the following list.

It's true Roberts' forte is romantic comedies--especially after a disastrous effort to do drama in the late 90s (namely 1996's Mary Reilly, Everyone Says I Love You and Michael Collins). Though two of her romantic comedies really stand out, so much of the rest is tripe, and it hardly offers her much of a challenge.

With the new release of Duplicity, it's strange to see Roberts doing so well as of late in film other than romantic comedies. Perhaps it was time or the material or both, but Roberts is successfully scoring well--a shame since her recent motherhood has left her rarely willing to get back behind the camera. Here are 5 films, in chronological order from earliest to latest, in which she brings more to the film than her token smile and charm, transcending the material in some cases to really make the role her own.

1. Mystic Pizza (1988) This film genuinely manages to stay an 80s favorite, and though it's a little dated, it could be viewed for the first time and still be moving. It's one of the few romantic comedies that has a shred of originality--from the characters to the setting. it may seem that Roberts' Daisy Arujo (just move on from the fact that she's supposedly Portuguese) is Roberts' go-to character type, but it happened here first. The film is both romantic and has real class difference conflict that's more believable than shown in John Hughes-type comedies.

2. Pretty Woman (1990) Mystic Pizza may have brought Roberts into the public limelight, but Pretty Woman sealed it permanently. This film offered up the perfect role to a somewhat-newcomer actress: her character Vivian got to be vivacious, ?, and above all, engagingly charismatic. She is the movie, and the film still retains its spark.

3. the Pelican Brief (1993) This may seem as formulaic as it gets--from being adapted from a John Grisham novel on down to the type of suspense offered up. However, not only does the film handle the material creatively with the shots and editing chosen, but Roberts brings an intense vulnerability

4. Erin Brockovich (2000) An obvious choice, Roberts took home an Academy Award for this performance. But this film did for Roberts' career the same thing Pretty Woman did--it launched her all over again. This finally cemented her the ability to break away from romantic piffle and really try her hand at drama (that preferably did not involve accents). This film received a lot of attention at the time, it may have even been overblown and overexposed. Nearly ten years later, it derserves another honest look for a great, inspiring story and a griity, austere performance from Roberts.

5. Closer (2004) Before Clive Owen and Julia Roberts were devouring the screen in Duplicity, they starred in the screen adaptation of the play Closer. Clive Owen has often remarked on the shock he felt delivering so much of the acerbic, spicy, and even just nasty dialogue to "America's Sweetheart." Many complain the films' characters are unlikable, but this story revolves around dialogue and dynamics--it's intriguing and engaging to say the least.

Guilty Pleasure Bonus!

For really early material, check out Season 4, episode 22 of Miami Vice to see Roberts in this classic series.

The copyright of the article Julia Roberts, 5 Best Acting Roles in Film Stars is owned by Margaret Burke. Permission to republish Julia Roberts, 5 Best Acting Roles in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.