Known for her penchant for picking diverse and challenging roles with fierce female characters, Jessica Chastain quickly became one of the most coveted actresses in Hollywood after being nominated for her first Academy Award for The Help in 2011. Since then, she's wracked up an impressive list of credits and tacked on another Academy Award nomination, with a filmography that ranges from taught political thrillers to major blockbusters and niche horrors. Before acting in film, Chastain was a star on the stage, studying at Juilliard and making her stage debut in a 1998 Shakespeare production.
Though Chastain is a world-class actress with a sparkling resume of work, not all her films have been hits. Here are Jessica Chastain's 5 best and 5 worst movies, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
WORST: Texas Killing Fields (37%)
Loosely based on a true story, Texas Killing Fields followed two homicide detectives hunting a sadistic serial killer who dumps the mutilated bodies of his female victims in a local oil marsh appropriately named the 'killing fields'. The case heats up when a popular local girl goes missing and the killer starts to play a cat-and-mouse game with the detectives.
The atmospheric crime procedural faltered in its storytelling and weak direction but was bolstered by a talented cast that included Chastain, Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Chloë Grace Moretz.
BEST: Zero Dark Thirty (91%)
This Katheryn Bigalow helmed drama based on the decade-long intelligence operation to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden showcased a ferocious and commanding performance from Jessica Chastain (arguably the best of her career). In Zero Dark Thirty, Chastain plays Maya, a key CIA operative in the manhunt who is consistently undermined by her fellow male analysts, until she brings them the information they've been looking for all along; Bin Laden's location. The character is brilliantly written by Mark Boal, but it's Chastain who brings all her messiness, dimensionality, and power to life on the screen.
Chastain was nominated for her second Academy Award in as many years for the film, though the war thriller did net some controversy for its portrayal of interrogation techniques.
WORST: Dark Phoenix (23%)
A disappointing final take on the X-Men franchise, Dark Phoenix struggled to produce a meaningful emotional pull on its audience, resulting in a somewhat dull final hoorah for a franchise that was once great. The film focused on the X-Men defeating a powerful foe in Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), uniting as a collective family to save both Jean and the planet. Even some well-executed action sequences couldn't keep the film from feeling like it was any fun.
Chastain took on the role of Smith/Vuk, a shape-shifting alien race leader, but couldn't save the film from its downfalls.
BEST: The Martian (91%)
Ridley Scott's award-winning film based on the bestselling science fiction novel of the same name was a critical darling that won several accolades and was nominated for 7 Academy Awards. Led by a witty performance from Matt Damon, The Martian followed an astronaut who was abandoned by his crew on Mars after being presumed dead from a freak storm. Left to fend for himself, Mark (Damon) learned to survive on the hostile planet, all whilst NASA and his old crew planned a daring rescue mission to save him.
Though only a secondary character, Chastain stood out for her work as one of Damon's co-workers desperate to retrieve him.
WORST: The Huntsman: Winter's War (18%)
A sequel to the 2012 Snow White And The Huntsman, The Huntsman: Winter's War failed to capture the same twisted atmosphere as its predecessor, and felt more like a cheap way to cash-in on a franchise rather than a fully realized installment with teeth. The film centered on the Huntsman's (Chris Hemsworth) journey to defeat the Ice Queen (Emily Blunt) and her brought-back-to-life sister (Charlize Theron) before they could conquer the enchanted forest. Chastain played Huntsman's lover, Sara.
Not even a stellar cast of A-listers could save The Huntsman: Winter's War's unlikeable characters and flat plotting, and the film was a domestic box office flop.
BEST: Coriolanus (92%)
Jessica Chastain starred as the titular character's wife in the electrifying film adaptation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus set in modern times. A grim political power struggle with some fantastic battle scenes and cultural resonance, Coriolanus succeeded telling the story of a hero of Rome, General Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes) who is banished after inciting bloody riots and forms an odd alliance with his enemy Tullus (Gerald Butler) to exact his revenge on the city that expelled him.
The film worked as an ambitious Greek tragedy and was nominated for a BAFTA, and Chastain elevated her smaller supporting role.
WORST: The Color Of Time (5%)
Created by 12 New York University students, The Color Of Time explored various parts of famous Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams' life, from his haunting memories of his childhood to his tragic losses and his struggles with parenthood. The film boasted a stable of stellar actors that included Jessica Chastain, James Franco, Mila Kunis, and Zach Braff.
A sincere idea in of itself, The Color Of Time ultimately struggled with finding deeper meaning and played out as an overly moody and waiflike examination of a famous poet's life that never dug past its experimental, Malick-esque outward aesthetic.
BEST: Take Shelter (92%)
Led by a pair of commanding, powerhouse performances in Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, the Jeff Nichols helmed Take Shelter ripples with dread and darkness throughout after a small-town Ohio couple is torn apart when the husband (Shannon) starts having apocalyptic dreams about an incoming storm. As his anxiety ratchets up and he begins to build a storm shelter in preparation, his wife and deaf daughter's happiness and connection to him is tested. The palpable unease and simmering tension built to agonizing levels, creating a lasting impact on the audience even after the thriller wrapped
Take Shelter premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim and went on to win the coveted Critics' Week Grand Prix at Cannes.
WORST: Stolen (0%)
Not even an A-list cast of John Hamm, Josh Lucas, and Jessica Chastain could save this low-budget thriller about a policeman haunted by the disappearance of his son 8 years prior and the 50-year-old homicide of a similar young boy whose mummified body is found at a construction site. The clunky narrative and soft script overloaded with classic mystery cliches was nothing if not uninspired, offering audiences little to like apart from the cast (who were simply too good for the material).
Switching between time zones, the film was routine and predictable and was universally panned by critics, receiving a rare Rotten Tomatoes score of 0%.
BEST: Salomé (100%)
Al Pacino's experimental drama adapted from his 2011 film Wilde Salomé (based on the Oscar Wilde play of the same name) took audiences by surprise with its atmospheric retelling of the biblical story of Salomé. Filled to the brim with lust and greed, the film follows a girl (Jessica Chastain) who performs a frenetic 'dance of the seven veils' for the King under the promise that she will be rewarded with John the Baptist's execution.
Jessica Chastain was captivating and resonant as the titular character alongside a strong performance from Pacino himself as King Herold.