25 Greatest Jennifer Connelly Movies Ranked Worst To Best

Known to three generations of moviegoing audiences, each for a different iconic role, actor Jennifer Connelly has starred in unforgettable films across five decades. Coming into stardom off her lead role opposite David Bowie in "Labyrinth," and her eye-popping performance in "Career Opportunities," Connelly became a Gen X dream girl. Continuing success through the 1990s saw her career continue to blossom with roles in "The Rocketeer,"  "Higher Learning," and "Dark City," as she began to move from family films and high-flying adventures to serious and even disturbing dramas.

Across her lengthy career, Connelly has worked with celebrated directors such as John Singleton, Ron Howard, Darren Aronofsky, and Ang Lee. While we're only going to count down her 25 best films, there are plenty that didn't make the list that are still worth noting. From her role as Betty Ross in a pre-MCU "Hulk," to the big budget sci-fi remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still," some of her most memorable roles unfortunately just missed the cutoff.

But fret not, her best are all here, though the film that comes out on top may surprise you. Scroll on to find out if your favorite Jennifer Connelly movie ranks as her best.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Philip Roth, "American Pastoral" is the story of a husband and wife and their search for their wayward daughter. Opposite Connelly is "Obi-Wan Kenobi" star Ewan McGregor — who also directed in his debut as a filmmaker — as Seymour "Swede" Levov, a New Jersey factory worker who marries the state's former beauty queen, Dawn Dwyer. After their daughter is born — played as an adult by Dakota Fanning — their marriage grows increasingly troubled, particularly as social and political turmoil encroach on their quiet life. 

The young but affected Merry, who suffers a stutter, finds meaning and belonging in political activism and is drawn into the anti-war protests of the 1960s. She eventually starts traveling far and wide to take part in violent demonstrations, much to her parents' dismay. But when their hometown post office is bombed, Merry is the FBI's lead suspect and disappears from her parents' lives. Swede then begins a determined quest to track her down, while Dawn comes to accept that their daughter is gone and they should build new lives without her.

While the film couldn't live up to the brilliance of the prize-winning book, Connelly delivers a powerful performance as the haunted mother of suspected bomber Merry.

Along with a broad ensemble cast, Jennifer Connelly starred in the 2009 romantic comedy "He's Just Not That Into You," which chronicled the love and sex lives of a variety of couples, all loosely connected by friendly associations. The film also stars Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Wilson Cruz, and Justin Long. Aniston and Affleck star as Beth and Neil, a couple struggling with commitment issues, with Beth looking for marriage after seven years together and Neil resistant to the idea.

Meanwhile Connelly and Cooper are Janine and Ben, a longtime married couple undergoing home renovations. When Janine discovers cigarette butts in their backyard, it leads to revelations that Ben has been sleeping with his yoga instructor, the aspiring singer Anna (Johansson). A heartfelt exploration of love and relationships, the film features four interconnected stories, some focused on deeply troubling drama while others are played for lighthearted laughs.

A classic date movie of the highest order, it succeeds where other fluffier fare has failed, thanks in no small part to its impressive roster of stars.

Jennifer Connelly appeared as part of the star-studded cast of the 1996 period noir crime drama "Mulholland Falls," alongside Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Treat Williams, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, and John Malkovich. Set in 1950s Los Angeles, the film follows a group of detectives who have been using a cliff on Mulholland Drive to mete out their own brand of vigilante justice to criminals that the law says they can't touch. But the squad of dirty detectives find themselves in hot water after a young woman turns up dead at a construction site.

The victim, a promiscuous woman named Allison Pond (Connelly, seen in flashbacks) has had a series of recorded dalliances with a number of different people. With her surviving recordings threatening several important city figures, her death becomes a bigger case than expected. But finding the killer threatens to embroil the hard-nosed but loose lawmen in a broader conspiracy involving atomic weapons and a secretive government project. An engrossing thriller and throwback to classic 1950s crime dramas, "Mulholland Drive" delivered action, romance, and suspense in a film that more than lived up to its classic Hollywood inspiration.

Another neo-noir tale, the 1990 film "The Hot Spot" put Jennifer Connelly in the role of alluring "other" woman Gloria Harper, who is eyed by her co-worker, used car salesman Harry Maddox (Don Johnson). But Harry is involved with the dealership's owner Dolly (Virginia Madsen), a very much married woman with no love for her aging husband. The conniving Maddox, who is engaged in two affairs — with both Gloria and Dolly — robs a local bank in a scheme that goes horribly wrong. Matters are complicated when he's blackmailed by Dolly, after scorning her plans to kill her husband and forced into continuing a relationship with her. 

But all the while Maddox is lovelorn over Gloria, the young woman who is in trouble herself and who wants to be with him. Though the plot is confusing and a tad overwrought, "The Hot Spot" is a satisfying tale with a slick, atmospheric tone, an enjoyably campy story, and delightful cast of eccentric characters. Roger Ebert in his review noted that "movie lovers who have marinated their imaginations in the great B-movies from RKO and Republic will recognize 'The Hot Spot' as a superior work in an old tradition," while awarding the film a solid three stars.

Connelly starred in 2009 alongside her real-life husband Paul Bettany in "Creation," with the Hollywood power couple played groundbreaking evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin and his wife Emma. Somewhat loosely based on a popular biography of the famed researcher by Randall Keynes, Darwin's great-great-grandson, it follows Darwin during his most intense period as he discovers natural links in his evolutionary theory and struggles to document them in his magnum opus, "On the Origin of Species."

More than just his fight to find evidence of his scientific beliefs, the film focuses on the relationship between Charles, a man of science, and Emma, a Catholic woman of great faith. As Charles is challenged by nature, so too is he challenged by his own wife, who believes first and foremost in the hand of God, not the "blasphemous" theories her husband is trying to prove: that man was descended from primates. But the tragic loss of their daughter, who continues to haunt them in visions and dreams, casts a pall over their relationship as well.

With Bettany and Connelly in the main roles, the chemistry between the husband and wife onscreen is believable, as is the trouble between them as his work begins to crystallize and tragedy threatens to unravel them both. A rare historical biopic for Connelly and an understated drama, it flew under the radar on its release.

Produced by "Avatar" helmer and visionary sci-fi filmmaker James Cameron, "Alita: Battle Angel" was a big budget adaptation of an off-the-wall anime and manga franchise, "Battle Angel Alita." Directed by Robert Rodriguez ("Machete"), it stars newcomer Rosa Salazar in the title role, with Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Christoph Waltz, and Jackie Earle Haley rounding out the principal cast. Some of the characters are augmented with impressive CGI motion capture that gives them unique stylized looks, but Connelly is able to eschew the enhancements in her role as Dr. Chiren, the former wife of Alita's mentor, Dr. Ido (Waltz).

The film follows the mysterious Alita, a young orphaned girl taken in by cyborg scientist Ido, who tries to give her a new life. But as new dangers emerge around her, Alita sets out to discover who — or what — she really is, and why she possesses lethal skills. Her quest puts her on a collision course with a diabolical criminal syndicate and its leader, the villainous Vector (Ali). An over-the-top dystopian adventure, what "Alita" lacks in soulful drama it more than makes up for in sheer spectacle.

Before Josh Boone directed "The Fault In Our Stars," he helmed the 2012 romantic comedy "Stuck in Love," starring Jennifer Connelly, Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, Logan Lerman and Kristen Bell. Kinnear plays successful author and teacher Bill Borgens, whose marriage to Erica (Connelly) has collapsed some time earlier. Though Erica is with a new man, Bill still loves her dearly, while he struggles to help his two children: his daughter Sam, whose own first work is soon to be published, and his son Rusty, who is working towards a career as a novelist himself. 

While Bill has tried to move on, he still carries a torch for Erica and hopes to reconcile, which his two children view as an unhealthy obsession because it is interfering with his writing. But the trouble between Bill and Erica has lasting effects on their children in different ways, including Sam, who channels her anger towards her mother into unhealthy relationships of her own. Rusty, meanwhile, pines for a troubled young woman at his school, which gets in the way of his own writing ambitions. Critical consensus on "Stuck in Love" was mixed, with reviewers applauding its cast while calling out its erratic, formulaic script. 

A classic pulp-inspired superhero movie, "The Rocketeer" was based on a retro comic book series of the same name by artist and writer Dave Stevens. Paying homage to its 1940s setting and the classic serials that inspired it, the film is a throwback, an "Indiana Jones"-style romp and loving tribute to adventures of days gone by. Directed by Joe Johnston ("Captain America: The First Avenger"), the film stars Bill Campbell as Cliff Secord, a disillusioned stunt pilot who's dating the beautiful aspiring actress Jenny Blake, who dreams of leaving their small town and having a grander life.

Just as Secord claims he's happy with life the way it is, he stumbles upon a top secret government project: a jet-powered rocket pack, stolen by mobsters on the run from the FBI. With the help of his friend Peevy, Secord uses the jetpack to become a local hero, inadvertently putting mobsters and G-Men hot on his tail. When Jenny lands a role with Hollywood star Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton), she soon discovers that he's part of a sinister Nazi plot to use the rocket pack to build an army of super-soldiers and take over the world.

A rip-roaring adventure from start to finish, "The Rocketeer" may not have had big box office success, but it's since gone on to become one of the most beloved adventure classics of its era.

The 2003 psychological drama "House of Sand and Fog" stars Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, and Shohreh Aghdashloo in the story of Kathy Nicolo, who battles an Iranian family for ownership of the home she'd shared with her husband in the wake of his death and her subsequent eviction. Forcibly removed from the home by a sheriff's deputy, Nicolo hires an attorney, determined to win back the rights to her house.

Meanwhile, beleaguered Iranian immigrant and former military officer Massoud Amir Behrani and his wife Nadi Behrani (Kingsley and Aghdashloo) struggle in America after escaping their homeland. Discovering Nicolo's home for sale for a fraction of its actual value, they scoop it up, and it becomes the salvation they so desperately need. But with both Nicolo and Behrani refusing to leave the house to the other, this clash of downtrodden souls becomes a battle of wills.

Though Shohreh Aghdashloo and Ben Kingsley were both nominated for Academy Awards for their performances in the film, Connelly is not to be overlooked here either. Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert awarded the film the coveted perfect score of four stars, saying, "Here is a film that seizes us with its first scene and never lets go ... it stands with integrity and breaks our hearts."

Detailing the atrocities of the Sierra Leone Civil War, which raged for more than a decade through the 1990s and early 2000s, the 2006 war drama "Blood Diamond" starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Sheen, and Arnold Vosloo. In the devastated nation, rebel warlords enslave local citizens to mine for diamonds that are sold to pay for the conflicts, creating a vicious and perpetuating cycle of death. An enslaved family man, Solomon Vandy (Hounsou), discovers a rare pink diamond and is determined to steal it for himself. 

After finding himself imprisoned alongside smuggler and mercenary Danny Archer (DiCaprio), the two decide to work together to get the prized gem and change their fortunes forever. With the help of an intrepid American reporter named Maddy (Connelly), who is in the region to expose the horrors of the diamond industry, they will brave their way through enemy territory and face down brutal rebel armies to get what they're after.

A thrilling, gut-wrenching, and emotional journey of survival and retribution, "Blood Diamond" puts a microscope to the terrifying realities of war and the jewel trade.

Based on a true story, "Only the Brave" recounts the harrowing events of the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013, as a group of highly trained firefighters in Arizona battle a deadly fire that claims 19 members of their 20-man team. Called the Granite Mountain Hotshots, they're led by Eric Marsh, played in the film by Josh Brolin ("Avengers: Endgame"). Jennifer Connelly playing his steely-eyed wife Amanda, who doesn't like his dangerous occupation. But Eric's pride in his team overrules all, as their brotherhood is connected by a deep commitment, unrivaled courage, and a boundless dedication to saving lives.

Together, the Hotshots leap from wildfire to wildfire, doing more than their jobs, making personal sacrifices and endangering their lives to snuff out the most dangerous blazes. But when a massive fire erupts on Yarnell Hill, threatening thousands, Eric and his team's skill and resolve will be put to the ultimate test. All the while, Amanda waits at home, pregnant and praying that her husband will make it back alive.

Featuring an ensemble cast including Jeff Bridges, Miles Teller, Andie MacDowell, and Taylor Kitsch, the film impressed critics and audiences as a fierce and terrifying look at the best firefighters in the nation, and one of the most tragic incidents in the history of the profession.

A dark and disturbing psychological drama, Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream" put the director on the map and turned him from an emerging talent into a bona fide in-demand filmmaker. Starring Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, and Marlon Wayans, "Requiem" tells the story of three individuals and their progressive descent into drug addiction, Connelly and Leto star as Marion and Harry, a young couple who sell and use heroin with their friend Tyrone (Wayans), all while hoping to one day achieve a bigger dream and more prosperous life together. 

Meanwhile, Harry's mother Sarah (Burstyn) has dreams of her own, and has been prescribed amphetamines to lose weight so she can look good for a planned television appearance. But while losing weight, she becomes increasingly dependent on the pills, and upping her dosage leads to paranoid delusions. As Harry, Marion, and Tyrone face problems with their supplier, leading to Marion's descent into dark depths of depravity, Sarah faces her own downward spiral.

Deeply haunting, "Requiem for a Dream" is a raw and uncompromising look at the effects of drug use on three people whose lives are lost to the prison of their addiction.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).