Top 10 Child Performances – The 00’s

Article by Todd Plucknett

Posted - 12/21/09

Go to Top 10 Child Performances

This has been the toughest list to make so far. It wasn’t as predestined as the other lists. I couldn’t just look at my film awards and lists and grab the top 10 that fit the category. Looking for great child performances is difficult. I had to first define “child performance”, which took a while. After discussion, I settled on performances by actors or actresses under the age of 16 (using the year that the film was first released as the end point). There have been some child actors that have ruled the decade in the eyes of critics, including Oscar nominees Abigail Breslin, Keisha Castle-Hughes, and Saoirse Ronan and SAG nominees Freddy Highmore and Dakota Fanning. However, most of the best child performances of the decade have been from unknowns.

One person that is absent from my list that needs to be mentioned is Q’Orianka Kilcher from The New World. She fits the category, but her performance is just so seasoned that it is on another level from every other child performance of the decade. I don’t consider it a child performance; I just consider it one of the best performances of the decade. It would have been unfair to compare any of these performances to it. Other than that one, here are the best performances given by young actors of the last 10 years:

Honorable Mention:  Dakota Fanning – I Am Sam (2001; 7 years old); Abigail Breslin – My Sister’s Keeper (2009; 13 years old); Ivana Baquero – Pan’s Labyrinth (2006; 12 years old); Max Records – Where the Wild Things Are (2009; 12 years old)

10. Emma Bolger – In America (2003; 6 years old). Emma Bolger gave possibly the most astonishing performances I have ever seen from an actress her age. The film has the ensemble-driven style that I love. The stars of the show, surprisingly, are not Paddy Considine or Oscar nominees Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou. They are young Sarah and Emma Bolger. Emma is able to express emotion almost effortlessly, and her character is just infectious to watch. The way in which she interacts with the other actors, the expressions on her face, and how she delivers each line suggest that she is a natural performer. She really has not worked much since, so I hope she is not just a one-hit wonder.

9. Lina Leandersson – Let the Right One In (2008; 13 years old). Lina Leandersson gave one of the most chilling performances from a young actor in a long time. Leandersson and Kare Hedebrandt make their debuts in this film, one of the best of 2008. While Hedebrandt was very good, Leandersson steals the show with her original take on the young vampire. Her character has few lines, but her facial expressions and physicality are what really put her performance on another level. Her stillness is what makes her brutal and sudden attacks so startling. I was amazed at how well these characters were developed. The young actors, particularly Leandersson, really slid into their roles and created one of the most compelling young screen couple in recent years.

8. Jaden Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness (2006; 8 years old). Jaden Smith definitely gets his charisma from his father. This performance is so good, and it just proves that Smith is maybe the coolest little kid in movies. Everything about what he did with his role pulls this movie out of the mire of typical weepy films to make characters the audience actually cares about and do not feel guilty for getting emotionally attached to. The scene on the basketball court was emotionally wrenching, and shows that he will be just as good as his father in time.

7. Jamie Bell – Billy Elliot (2000; 14 years old). Jamie Bell is one of the better young actors in Hollywood. He really is incredible in this film. His performance is as mature as any child performance I have seen. In all of his dancing scenes, he has an intensity in his eyes that is rare for an actor of his age. Being in a film as a child and stealing every scene from an Oscar-nominated performance, like Bell did with Julie Walters, marks a real accomplishment. It is no surprise that he went on to light up the screen later in the decade with such performances as those in Undertow and Defiance. He is a superb actor.

6. Kristen Stewart – The Safety of Objects (2003; 11 years old). Kristen Stewart had one of the most intriguing and impressive bodies of work of any child actor this decade. This was her first performance, and undeniably her best one. The scenes that she interacts with Timothy Olyphant provide some of the only light in this sloppy picture. They make it almost worth seeing alone. I didn’t even know it was her at first. I wasn’t even sure if it was a girl. I was just simply astounded by this child performance, though. Again, it is no surprise that she went on to such great performances as those in Panic Room, Undertow, Into the Wild, and Adventureland. She is one of the biggest young stars out there now. This is where it all started.

5. Michel Joelsas – The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2008; 11 years old). Michel Joelsas gave one of the most professional performances I have seen from a child actor. He is wise beyond his years. This film is one of those you probably have never heard of, but it is a superb one that burns in the memory. The performance by Joelsas is simply mesmerizing. He alone draws the audience into this film. The looks in his eyes says it all. It is one of the best performances by anyone from 2008.

4. Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine (2006; 11 years old). This is the only performance on my list to actually get nominated at the Oscars. At first, the performance may just seem like a normal child performance. But as the movie goes along, Breslin turns in one of the finest performances of 2006. Her scenes with Alan Arkin are incredible. Those alone justify her nomination. As shown by the fact that she is the only person mentioned twice on this list, she really is the best child actress working today. She really understands acting more than anyone her age. Everything from this, to My Sister’s Keeper, to Definitely, Maybe, to the best performance ever given on NCIS…Breslin is the real deal.

3. Jenna Boyd – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005; 12 years old). It came as the biggest surprise to me that Jenna Boyd ended up on my list. After seeing her awful, annoying performance in the trainwreck Ron Howard 2003 film The Missing, I thought she had no talent. I could not have been more wrong. This film is loaded with superb acting, and this is one of its best performances in it. The four leads all have the big emotional scenes that show their range. Boyd has a smaller part, and she is given the near impossible task of keeping up with the incredible Amber Tamblyn. Every one of their scenes together is fantastic, and as the film goes on, Boyd puts on an emotional show for the ages. I was blown away by how deep the film actually was, and how Boyd was at the center of the emotional impact. It was a performance that I did not expect, and one that I will likely never forget.

2. Sarah Bolger – In America (2003; 11 years old). Sarah Bolger’s performance in this film is something that doesn’t feel like a child performance. It feels like a seasoned actress in her element. Everything she does in this film is just perfect. This is another incredibly mesmerizing role. Her part was not written as a scene-stealer, though. With her sister Emma getting all the great lines and Djimon Hounsou doing his thing, Sarah could have been an afterthought. Somehow, she stole the show and turned in one of my favorite performances of 2003. I have to give props to Jim Sheridan, though, for finding and casting these two incredible young talents.

1. Thomas Turgoose – This Is England (2007; 14 years old). The best child performance of the decade belongs to Thomas Turgoose. He turned in one of the most haunting, sensitive performances of 2007 in this wrenching, compelling street drama based on the life of director Shane Meadows. His performance has an incredible range of emotions, and he goes farther in this performance than is common with most child actors. His scenes with the skinheads are superb, but it is his quieter, more intimate scenes where the amazing performance can fully be realized. There are images and scenes that are forever engrained in my head, most of them revolving around Turgoose and his brilliant, complex character. It was such a difficult role to play, and he absolutely nailed it. This was far and away the most impressive performance by a young actor of the last 10 years.