The 7 Best And 7 Worst Rachel McAdams Movies Ranked

Rachel McAdams is the kind of actress who elevates every movie she's in. She hit the ground running not long after she started out, making a huge splash in "Mean Girls" and "The Notebook" in 2004, just three years after her on-screen debut in an episode of the Disney Channel's "The Famous Jett Jackson." Since that seminal year, she's gone on to star in everything from thrillers to funny feel-good films to Oscar-winning dramas, and the characters she takes on have been as varied as the films.

Luckily for her fans, McAdams has good taste about the projects she works on. Her sharp sense of what's worthwhile and what isn't has given her a top seven movies any actress would be happy with ... and a bottom tier that's still often pretty enjoyable in its own right. Even though we have to acknowledge the occasional dud in her filmography, it's usually easy to see what drew her in: Who wouldn't risk a possible flop for the chance to, say, work with a legendary director like Brian DePalma? So, let's take a look at the best and worst the career of Rachel McAdams has to offer.

"Aloha" is probably best remembered for its misstep in casting Emma Stone as a character who is a quarter-Chinese and a quarter-Hawaiian. It was an incidence of whitewashing that drew considerable attention and criticism even at the time, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Since then, Emma Stone has noted that she regrets taking the role. The movie itself has mostly vanished from the pop culture consciousness — and good riddance to it. 

Its story awkwardly combines a muddled plot of cultural and geopolitical importance with the story of one man's redemption and love life. Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) visits Hawaii to pave the way for a privately funded space center. He's drawn to his military liaison, Captain Allison Ng (Emma Stone), but their budding romance risks being overshadowed by ongoing longing and secrets with his ex-girlfriend, Tracy (Rachel McAdams). 

Critics panned the film, with publications like The Guardian noting how the movie smooths out all its potential conflicts and never really convinces us that Gilcrest is really washed-up or vulnerable. "Aloha" is constructed in such a slipshod manner that we have to deem it McAdams' worst movie. 

But while it has plenty of problems, her performance actually isn't one of them. "Hero's ex" is usually a thankless role, but McAdams imbues Tracy with realism and warmth. While we're watching her deal with her rocky marriage and her past with Gilcrest, we can briefly believe this is a better movie than it is.

Not even the most devoted of Rachel McAdams fans should feel the need to seek out 2002's "The Hot Chick," a faux-comedic pile-up of inept plotting and offensive and unfunny "jokes." Watching it is an exercise in feeling your mind slowly go numb.

Jessica (Rachel McAdams) is a classic high school mean girl — and while the immortal Regina George proves that McAdams can make a mean girl character fascinating, there's only so much she can do with a role written to have this little wit or verve. In any case, she's not playing Jessica for long, because magical earrings lead to her accidentally swapping bodies with bottom-of-the-barrel thief Clive (Rob Schneider).

"The Hot Chick" ran cold with the critics, with The Austin Chronicle noting that Rob Schneider's fans may find something to like here, but "the humor is definitely low-brow, and the movie's sex-switch hook is mined solely for physical gags ... one might expect that with such low goals the film might have at least hit its target more often than it does."

In the end, McAdams simply doesn't have enough to do here. She's just stuck playing second fiddle to Schneider, and it's all a big waste of her exceptional comedic talents.

Director Wim Wenders has helmed a number of acclaimed films, from "Paris, Texas" to "Wings of Desire" to the documentary "Buena Vista Social Club." Considering his string of successes, we can understand why Rachel McAdams signed on to his 2015 film "Every Thing Will Be Fine." Unfortunately, this flop left audiences unmoved and critics profoundly disappointed.

While this movie preserves Wenders' gift for stunning visuals, it fails to tell a compelling story despite having the right material for one: Tomas Eldan (James Franco) accidentally hits a boy with his car, and he must find a way to crawl out of his guilt and grief, so he can move forward and provide some real assistance to the boy's family. It could make for a quietly wrenching drama, but it just feels strangely lifeless, stilted, and monotonously glum.

McAdams does her best with her supporting role as Tomas' ex, Sara, but the role doesn't offer the best showcase for her talents. It affords her no opportunity to stretch herself and, as Variety pointed out, it falls into an unfortunate pattern: "Poor McAdams, sporting sensible hair and a truly mystifying cod-Continental accent, continues her thankless run of needy, tossed-aside love interests in big-name auteur projects."

Brian De Palma's 2012 erotic thriller "Passion" falls on the lower end of Rachel McAdams' filmography, but De Palma's distinctive style lends flair to this remake of the 2010 French-language "Love Crime." In the end, though, it basically defines "mixed bag," and rocky critical reviews show that while the disappointment wasn't universal, it was still fairly widespread.

Christine (McAdams) and Isabelle (Noomi Rapace) are professional rivals, who work together at an ad agency. From a distance, it looks like Christine is mentoring her younger associate Isabelle — but once you scratch the surface, you discover that their relationship seethes with resentment and personal and professional jealousy. Isabelle makes a costly misstep when she goes behind Christine's back to make sure she gets credit for her work. Christine, who wanted to present it as her own, is livid, and she'll stop at nothing to pay Isabelle back for stealing the spotlight. Then this twisted tale of revenge soon takes a surprising turn ....

While "Passion" is disastrously uneven, we can easily get why McAdams and Rapace were drawn to the project: Christine and Isabelle are the kind of vivid and challenging characters actresses don't get the chance to play all that often. NPR even credited McAdams' performance as a highlight, saying, "McAdams in particular does a fine job as the cold Christine, relishing the cutthroat viciousness of her lines." We wind up relishing it too.

"The Vow" attempts to recapture what made audiences fall for "The Notebook," but this time around, the magic just isn't there. Paige (Rachel McAdams) survives a car crash, but when she wakes up from her coma, she's lost all memory of her marriage to sweet, hunky Leo (Channing Tatum). The last few years are now a complete blank, and she's left with a lot of questions that aren't easily answered. While Paige flirts with diving back into the life she can remember — including her one-time fiancé, Jeremy (Scott Speedman) — Leo hopes against hope that she'll come back to him and that they'll be able to recapture what made their relationship so special.

We like a good amnesia story as much as anyone, but "The Vow" plays it a little safe. Roger Ebert criticized it for that sanitized quality, writing, "It's all too painless. One can imagine the anguish of the case in real life. ... 'The Vow' never really grapples with [its] issues. It's pleasant enough as a date movie, but that's all." Fortunately, while it's not a good movie, McAdams is good in it, and she gets a substantial starring role here. It's a shame she's not allowed to bring anything rawer or more difficult to the table, but she shines even in this glossy, overly sweet version.

Road trip movies are typically rambling and episodic, and that means they're at risk of becoming too disjointed and baggy. Unfortunately, "The Lucky Ones" slips too far on the wrong end of that scale.

Its poor structure and constantly fluctuating tone don't serve it well, but it's grounded by a trio of strong performances from Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, and Michael Peña. Robbins plays a staff sergeant looking at retirement, while McAdams and Peña play younger soldiers temporarily home on leave. They all return to the United States with their own missions, but when circumstances force them together, they quickly develop a ride-or-die mutual loyalty.

Most critics weren't fans of the film's plot and structure, but many did agree that McAdams, Robbins, and Peña were all notably great here both individually and in their ensemble. Laura Kern noted for The New York Times that "the lead actors work so well together, adding depth and levels of vulnerability to fairly underwritten roles," and that McAdams in particular was "luminous as always." 

This is a particularly good part for McAdams, whose PFC Colee Dunn covers a wide emotional range, demonstrates a lot of heart, and goes through plenty of ups and downs. McAdams is always good at on-screen rapport with her co-stars, and "The Lucky Ones" is a high even for her. It's just a shame that all of that isn't in service to a better or more coherent movie.

In 2009, Audrey Niffenegger's hit novel "The Time Traveler's Wife" received this middle-of-the-road adaptation starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana as Clare and Henry, a couple who experience their romance out of order due to Henry's uncontrollable time traveling. Clare's life has been shaped by Henry's enigmatic out-of-time visits, and she's known since childhood that they would marry someday. Their eventual life together may be full of bittersweet time travel paradoxes, but they do their best to love and hold onto each other.

This is a tricky film to anchor, since it's easy for the audience to get distracted by both logistical questions and more awkward moral ones, like, "Even if he didn't do it on purpose, isn't it a little creepy that adult Henry basically molded this child to become his ideal future wife?" 

The Hollywood Reporter gave the movie considerable credit as an adaptation, noting that "the heart of [Niffenegger's] time-leaping romance remains intact while all its superfluous details and rudderless characters are jettisoned," but also acknowledging that "it still is an acquired taste as illogic often trumps emotions and, for some at least, the treacle comes on a little too strong toward the end." Nevertheless, the film claws its way to watchability on the merits of McAdams' and Bana's performances, which sell us on the nearly hypnotic pull Henry and Clare feel towards each other. This is definitely one of McAdams' lesser films, but it's only weak, and not out-and-out bad.