Critic's Picks: 'The Family' Star Joan Allen's Top 5 Performances
From 'The Ice Storm' to 'The Contender,' THR critic Sheri Linden ranks the best film work from the actress, whose ABC drama series debuts Thursday.

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Manhunter
1986
Courtesy of PhotofestAs the killer’s blind co-worker in Michael Mann’s thriller, Allen is the quintessence of vulnerability and sexual readiness — but the actress, who never oversells her characters’ plights, makes her much more than that.
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The Crucible
1996
Courtesy of PhotofestAs Elizabeth Proctor, Allen creates a figure of silent accusation and anguished self-reproach in this adaptation of the Arthur Miller play about the Salem witch trials, co-starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder.
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The Contender
2000
Courtesy of PhotofestAllen scored an Oscar nomination for her performance as a senator being vetted for vice president, finding a flinty complexity in what might have been a sentimental heroine.
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Off the Map
2003
ScreengrabAllen expertly anchors this movie about an odd New Mexico family, playing a woman who must navigate the uncharted emotional terrain around her restless daughter, depressed husband and a smitten IRS agent.
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The Ice Storm
1997
Courtesy of PhotofestAs a Nixon-era Connecticut housewife with a cheating husband (Kevin Kline), Allen is exquisitely contained, embodying the awkward grace and indefinable ache that suffuse this masterpiece by Ang Lee.