This week sees the opening of two very different films—Lenny Abrahamson‘s “Room” (our review) and Cary Fukunaga‘s “Beasts of No Nation” (our review)— that are linked by one crucial element: they both revolve around performances by children. Jacob Tremblay has received nothing but the most effusive praise for his portrayal of a boy raised in captivity in the Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award winner “Room,” while Abraham Attah received the Venice Film Festival Best Young Actor Award for his magnetic and disturbing turn in ‘Beasts,’ and gained probably the biggest, most heartfelt ovation of the festival. As risky as it can be to hang your film on a juvenile performance, this week proves that it can pay off handsomely if you cast the right child.
Part of the added interest that casting a child brings is due directly to their youth and untested nature —there is a freshness that more experienced performers can lose, and if a child proves his or her acting mettle, it seems all the more impressive a discovery for having seemingly come from nowhere. But there’s also a different kind of magic that cinema captures that makes these rare jewels shine all the brighter: a sense of temporality, of catching a singular moment in time.
With two great examples in theaters this weekend, we felt this was a good chance to take a look at the best of the field of the past 15 years. Avoiding (for the most part) the treacly, the cutesy, and the stage-school bratty, here are 20 of our favorite child performances of the 21st century in no particular order.
Keisha Castle-Hughes in “Whale Rider” (2003)
In her first film, shot when she was just 11, Keisha Castle-Hughes plays the daughter in a long line of sons who fights to fulfill her destiny as the leader of her ancient Maori tribe, despite the patriarchal nature of the clan’s traditions. But Niki Caro‘s affecting film skillfully avoids feeling like a live-action Disney movie that the preceding suggests (though there are elements in common) by thoroughly bedding down into its arcane environment and culture, with Castle-Hughes delivering a powerful turn that, like some other titles here, helps the film achieve its folk-tale-in-the-real-world tone. Aided by great supporting turns, especially from Cliff Curtis as her unconventional father, Castle-Hughes held the title of youngest-ever Best Actress nominee for her role here until the record was broken by Quvenzhane Wallis. The richness of the emotion she brings to this lovely story suggests it was truly deserved.
Conner Chapman in “The Selfish Giant” (2013)
A snarling spitfire of a performance, Conner Chapman’s raw-nerve turn as Arbor inClio Barnard‘s ragged, rending “The Selfish Giant” is a brilliant evocation of the term “troubled child.” Arbor is explicitly vicious, ungovernable and somewhat terrifying to the helpless grown-ups around him, but through his friendship with Swifty (the also terrific Shaun Thomas), who’s as big, soft and slow as Arbor is wiry, tense and volatile, Chapman gives the film the heart beneath all that grit. Barnard’s film is astonishing for how well it sits within the tradition of British kitchen-sink social realism while subtly building a narrative that becomes as allegorical as its title, and Chapman is the live-wire lightning rod through which all of that energy is conducted, effortlessly earning all the sympathy that Arbor himself would no doubt fling back in your face.
Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement” (2007)
Maturing into easily one of the best actresses of her generation, Irish national treasure Ronan first came to attention for her third film role, as the childish dark heart of Joe Wright‘s Ian McEwan adaptation. The actress’ almost uncanny, certainly un-cute self-possession and her steady watchfulness is perfect for the role of precocious false accuser Briony Tallis, so that she remains the most memorable aspect (apart possibly from that celebrated long take and Keira Knightley‘s green dress) of the film. Getting an Oscar nomination for her trouble, Ronan was only one of three actresses to play the character over the course of her life —Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave being the other two (but don’t fear: apparently Briony sported the exact same side-barrette hairstyle over the span of 80 years, so we always know who’s who.)
Owen Kline in “The Squid and the Whale” (2005)
Sometimes you are forced to think about what happens when these kids leave the shoot, the film comes out and they’re hanging out with their friends. What do they make of it when the character you’ve played has his dysfunctional behavior at his parents’ separation manifested in compulsive masturbation at school? But Owen Kline’s performance in Noah Baumbach‘s “The Squid and the Whale” calls on him to do just that, and moreover to create believable fraternal chemistry with Jesse Eisenberg while also mastering the film’s tricky tonal balance between self-importance and skewering black comedy. Kline (son of Kevin) achieves all of that brilliantly in a fantastically nuanced, intelligent performance that shows clearly how it’s not just neurotic adults who repress and internalize their pain — it’s a trait that kids can display too. And in this family, it’s almost like an inherited gene.
Lina Leandersson in “Let The Right One In” (2008)
Matt Reeves‘ 2010 “Let Me In” turned out much better than anyone really had a right to expect (and similarly boasted a great central turn from Chloe Moretz), but that shouldn’t distract from the fact that the film was essentially surplus to requirements. Tomas Alfredson had already issued the definitive take on this exceptionally strange love story, with his iteration scripted by the novel’s author John Ajvide Lindqvist. Alfredson’s film is the kind of bone-deep scary that comes from immense melancholy, and 12-year-old Leandersson’s soft features and enormous, sometimes bleeding eyes contain so much sadness and loneliness as to be terrifying. Fragile and feral and playing against an also-terrific Kare Hedebrant as the bullied, gradually bewitched boy, Leandersson’s version of Eli, both a young girl and an ancient vampire, is unforgettable.
