Christian Bale In The Fighter Is One Of The Five Greatest Performances Of The 21st Century

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It's not exactly a hot take to say Christian Bale is amazing in The Fighter. He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his 2010 portrayal of Dicky Eklund. I don't know how he did it but his eyes and even his soul seemed cloudy and lost when his character was on crack. You see every bit of the desperation and regret that follows Eklund everywhere he goes. You know Eklund wants to do the right thing by his brother Micky but Dicky literally can't get out of his own way. 

It's wild that Bale made this between making The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. He's such a great actor, I hold him to the same standard I hold Leonardo DiCaprio. It's been far too long since we've seen him in another great role (The Big Short in 2016? I really liked Ford Vs. Ferrari but Bale should be in movies/roles at least that good much more regularly).

I put this performance right there with the best of the century. Here are four more of my favorites from the 2000's:

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Tom Hanks, Cast Away (2000)

He may have two Oscars but this is my favorite Tom Hanks performance. He's almost playing three roles. You have the Chuck before the plane crash/when he initially gets to the island. Then you have the Chuck that's the badass of the island. Finally, the Chuck that comes home is soft-spoken and seems constantly overwhelmed. But the core of his soul is there in all three versions of Chuck. Hanks has never been better.

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Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (2008)

This is probably the most obvious name on this list. There are parts that kinda shouldn't work either. Up until this movie, it was a role that was Jack Nicholson's. He was so good in the 1989 Batman that it was hard to imagine anyone else playing it. Mix that with the voice Ledger uses and even him dressed as a nurse blowing up the hospital is bizarre. Instead, it ends up being one of the greatest villains in movie history.

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Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs Of New York (2002)

With apologies to Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men and Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds, Day-Lewis is the best villain of the century who isn't in clown makeup. Bill The Butcher is such a fantastic bad guy because Day-Lewis does make him larger than life but always realistic. Tie in his isolationist mindset and you have a character that even has relevance today. My lone criticism of Day-Lewis is that he rarely plays anyone modern. That's why I think Philip Seymour-Hoffman had the better career. It's much harder playing someone I could know as opposed to Abraham Lincoln.

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Brie Larson, Room (2015)

This was such a tough role to play. She had to be strong for her son, show fear when her captor was around and have PTSD and a tough acclimation to society in the third act of the movie. I don't know if I ever rooted for characters more than when her son is in that back of that truck. It could be the most terrifying scene in movie history. But the scene before when she's planning it all out is the most heartbreaking. To this day, it's still one of the most emotional scenes I've experienced in a movie theater.

I absolutely expect people to disagree with this list. I left off a ton of great roles like Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave), Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men), Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal), Eric Bana (Munich), Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan). Put in the comments who you think should be on here.

On this episode of Double Play, KB and I talk The Fighter and another movie with a great performance: Foxcatcher. You can watch the whole episode below: