You have to dig really deep intoRachel McAdams’s filmography to find a movie that wasn’t either critically acclaimed or loved by movie fans - and usually both.From notable romance period pieces likeThe Notebook, action thrillers likeRed Eye, rom-com romps likeWedding Crashers, to flat-out hilarious comedies likeMean GirlsandGame Night, there is no genre that the Canadian-born actress has not taken on and conquered. With her girl-next-door qualities combined with her terrific timing and 10-megawatt smile,McAdams has been one of the most successful and bankable performers of the 21st century.
Cillian MurphyandRyan Goslingmay have duked it out over the summer of 2023 inOppenheimerandBarbierespectively, but another thing they have in common is they are part of a who’s who of leading men who have shared the big screen with the lovely McAdams.Owen Wilson, Domhnall Gleeson, Jason Bateman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Channing Tatum, Robert Downey Jr.,andJake Gyllenhaalare just some of the A-listers that have succumbed to the irresistible charm and magnetism of one of the most versatile and dynamic players working in Hollywood. And we defy you to find a bad film that she has starred in.It wasn’t easy to get to just 10, but here are Rachel McAdams’s best movies, ranked.
10’About Time' (2013)
Director: Richard Curtis
In Rachel McAdams' decorated career, of all the films she’s been in,About Timeis one of the best. Everyone wishes they had the chance to go back in time and be a little more charming or say the right thing in the process of wooing the object of their affection.InAbout Time, Domhnall Gleeson is in love with McAdams who is just so impossible not to have a crush on. InAbout Time,Richard Curtisdirects Gleeson and McAdams as he travels back in time over and over again to land the girl of his dreams, which is a role that McAdams is so good at playing.
What is it about McAdams that causes men to fall for her so hard? It’s that million-dollar smile that may be the hardest to forget. It is a winsome grin and one of the most endearing in the industry. She has an approachable and affable quality that makes her co-stars just melt and eventually become transfixed by her.About Timeis so good because of the time-traveling element, but mainly it’s the well-written script that is well-acted by McAdams and Gleeson that makes it go.
About Time
Rent on Apple TV
9’Red Eye' (2005)
Director: Wes Craven
Red Eyeis a bit of anoutlier for Rachel McAdams in that she rarely does adrenaline-fueled action thrillers. The opportunity to work withWes Craven, who also stepped out of his horror comfort zone to direct, certainly had to play a part in her choosing the project. Even in the process of making an edge-of-your-seat movie, Red Eye starts with the dastardly Jackson Ripper (Cillian Murphy) trying to woo the unsuspecting Lisa Henrietta Reisert (McAdams). She should do more action films as the picture was a big success,almost topping $100 million at the box office.
The beauty ofRed Eyeis the dichotomy of the two acts of the movie. The first act depicts what looks like a beautiful potential new romance between Lisa and Jackson, only to turn on a dime as the sinister Jackson uses Lisa’s father’s life as blackmail to get her to cooperate with his deadly demands. All of this occurs on an early morning flight from Dallas Love Field to Miami, Florida.The deterioration of the relationship to kill or be killed is Craven close to his best in an unfamiliar genre.
A woman is kidnapped by a stranger on a routine flight. Threatened by the potential murder of her father, she is pulled into a plot to assist her captor in a political assassination.
Watch on Paramount+
8’Wedding Crashers' (2005)
Director: David Dobkin
“Ma!! The Meatloaf!!“Will Ferrellhad one of the best lines in the film, but it was the electric and hilarious chemistry of an ensemble of great actors that madeWedding Crashersa blockbuster. Established stalwarts likeChristopher Walken,Vince Vaughn, andOwen Wilsonanchored the film while Mcadams led the group of up-and-comers likeBradley CooperandIsla Fischermade a splash in the side-splitting rom-com.
Vaughn and Wilson were at the peak of their Hollywood powers when they teamed up as a pair of degenerate lawyers who crashed wedding ceremonies to pick up available women. It was Rachel McAdams as Claire Cleary who melted our hearts and drew the attention of John Beckwith (Wilson). Just like all the men before him and after, he was helpless in resisting the magnetic aura of McAdams as the sister of the bride-to-be. This film was the one that cemented McAdams as the newJulia Robertsof the early 21st century, and it is still a pleasure to watch her work with her effortless charm.
Wedding Crashers
Watch on Max
7’Southpaw' (2015)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Southpawdemonstrated thatMcAdams still had an inimitable screen presence that makes any film she’s in better. The boxing tale of a street-tough middleweight champion Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), needed McAdams as Maureen Hope to add the tender and morally squared-away wife. She only appears in the first hour of the film but makes such an enormous impression on the story that her memory resonates throughout the rest of the movie and serves as an inspiration to Billy and their precious daughter Leila (Oona Laurence).
Antoine Fuquais best known for his collaborations withDenzel WashingtoninTraining Dayand theEqualizermovies, butSouthpawis a welcome departure for the accomplished director. The framing and sound effects of the boxing matches are on the level of the Rocky, Creed, and dare we say, Martin Scorcese’s 1980 masterpiece Raging Bull. That is lofty praise and McAdams is still the most memorable part of the movie. No offense to Jake Gyllenhaal, it’s just she is that good as Maureen.
Watch on Fubo
6’Midnight in Paris' (2011)
Director: Woody Allen
McAdams got the opportunity to work with the godfather of the absurd rom-com when she didMidnight in PariswithWoody Allen.The City of Lights is a character unto itself as Paris is shot beautifully as the backdropto a cast that not only includes McAdams but also Owen Wilson, Marion Cottilard, Alison Pill, and Michael Sheen. It is yet another of the many time travel films that Mcadams has made better only this has an Allen twist of art and literature as well.
McAdams is Inez, the fiancée of screenwriter Gil (Wilson). Per usual, it is easy to believe they are a couple on holiday in France.We have established that her partner could be almost any male actor in Hollywood and McAdams is going to gel with them and make for a believable romance. Her talent is on full display in the well-written and well-acted Allen ensemble piece,
Midnight in Paris
While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée’s family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
Rent on Amazon
5’Sherlock Holmes' (2009)
Director: Guy Ritchie
The versatile actress got to knock out two British birds with one stone when she was able towork with acclaimed director Guy Ritchie and tackle the legendary Sir Arthur Conan Doylecharacter in 2009’sSherlock Holmes. As Irene Adler, McAdams delivers a dazzling blend of damsel in distress and part badass oppositeRobert Downey Jr. andJude Law. There have been countless iterations of the sleuth detective and his pal Watson, so you have to jump off the screen to be as memorable as McAdams is in the film.
By 2009, McAdams was an established A-lister after having been in huge films likeThe NotebookandMean Girls. Matching wits with the silver-tongued Downey in the lead role might be asking too much of your run-of-the-mill actress, but not Rachel McAdams. Irene is more than Sherlock can handle and then some andwatching McAdams get to be a player in the uniquely shot Ritchie style is a pleasure for the viewer.
Sherlock Holmes
4’Spotlight' (2015)
Director: Tom McCarthy
The only thing missing from McAdams’s decorated career is the feather in the cap that would be an Academy Award for Best Actress. InSpotlight, she was part of an extraordinary cast that brought home the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. And the actress came as close as she ever has with a nomination (albeit for a Supporting role) for her part as intrepid Boston Globe reporter Sacha Pfeiffer. The triumphant cast includesMichael Keaton,Mark Ruffalo, andLiev Schreiber, and is a story ripped from the headlines.
If there was ever a doubt about whether McAdams could handle very serious subject, she laid all the worries to restin a movie that takes on the molestation crisis in the Catholic Church.Working with dramatic leads like Keaton and Ruffalo brought out the actress’s dramatic bona fides, and she was rightly rewarded by her peers with an Oscar nomination. Spotlight is an excellent film, but it’s also proof that McAdams can do it all.
Watch on Starz
3’Game Night' (2022)
Directors: Jonathan M. Goldstein & John Frances Daley
Not much was expected of the 2018 comedy-dramaGame Night, but in hindsight, when you take a look at the cast, maybe audiences shouldn’t be surprised that it lands in the top three for Rachel McAdams. Along withJason Bateman,Kyle Chandler, andJesse Plemons, McAdams capitalizes on a terrific script that is both unique and utterly hilarious.Game Nightmay be the most underrated film and McAdams performance on this list, but it gets its proper due here.
With the world becoming more and more digitalized, sometimes it’s fun to dust off the board games and invite some friends over for some good, old-fashioned analog fun.The plot ofGame Nightbrings six good friends together for an incredible night that starts as a typical get-together but quickly turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse.McAdams brings her typical warmth and winsome smile along with a quick wit and humor to keep up with comedic players like Bateman. The husband and wife team of Annie and Max Davis (McAdams/Bateman) are the best part of an underrated gem of a film.
Game Night
2’Mean Girls' (2004)
Director: Mark Waters
Tina Feywrote and starred inMean Girls, one of the seminal comedies of the 2000s, and it was such a huge hit that they made a New York Broadway show out of it. There is also a remake that is currentlyavailable to rent on Amazon Prime. Theoriginal grossed over $130 million at the box officeunder the spot-on direction ofMark Waters, and terrific performances by a talented ensemble cast that includes McAdams,Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, andLacy Chabert.
McAdams is a scene stealer as Regina George, the head of the three-headed hydra known as “The Plastics”. When Caty Herron (Lohan) is the new girl in school who rocks the boat and threatens the perfect world of the most popular and beautiful clique, Regina makes it her mission to make sure that the new girl doesn’t supplant her as the most worshiped girl at North Shore High School.McAdams is such a force in the movie and has such a spectacular demise, that this could very easily have been the number-one movie on this list if not for another spectacular performance.
Mean Girls
1’The Notebook' (2004)
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Two starstruck kids from opposite sides of the track overcome social contracts and logical explanations to be together.It’s a story that has been around sinceWilliam Shakespearegraced us withRomeo and Juliethundreds of years ago.The Notebookis arguablythe best romantic movie of the last 50 years and there was never a question that Nick Cassavetes’s film would land in the top spotof these rankings for Rachel McAdams.
Using the best guy meets girl plot device ever created,McAdams is radiant in the part of Allie Hamilton, a beautiful young woman from an affluent family who catches the eye of a determined, but poor Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling). Sparks fly, then they’re doused only to be lit up once again over several decades. What a treat getting to see legendsGena RowlandsandJames Garneras the couple in their golden years. Audiences really fell in love with McAdams in this film, as 2004 was a hell of a year for her, withThe NotebookandMean Girlsboth destroying the box office.
The Notebook (2004)
Watch on Hulu
NEXT:Of All the “Rachel McAdams Loves a Time-Traveler” Movies, This Is the Best One
