Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly plays Melanie Cavill in Snowpiercer, a role that makes good use of her composure. Melanie can address a carriage full of passengers with impeccable calm while leaving you wondering how much of the truth she is holding back. Connelly gives the character authority without needing to raise her voice.

Her film career includes Labyrinth, Requiem for a Dream and House of Sand and Fog. She won the supporting-actress Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, playing Alicia opposite Russell Crowe's John Nash. Those parts ask very different things of her: the openness of the early fantasy film, the distress of Requiem, and the patient attention to another person that makes Alicia more than a supporting presence.

In Dark Matter, she plays Daniela alongside Joel Edgerton. The science-fiction premise is enormous, but the relationship has to feel like an ordinary marriage before any of it can matter. It is a quieter kind of work than Melanie's command of Snowpiercer, with recognition, doubt and affection carrying much of the scene.