When Michelle Pfeiffer gets to crying you might need to turn away or start feeling what she’s feeling because she brings the emotion to the screen in a way that can shake even the most toughened hardcase into a sobbing mess. Her crying scenes aren’t always tearjerkers but when she does put that genuine emotion into the scene it takes a hard heart not to break down like a blubbering baby. Perhaps as she’s gotten older it’s become a little more poignant thanks to her continued experience and capability as an actress but even as a younger to middle-aged woman she’s managed to convince a lot of people of the seriousness of the situation in which she’s viewed.
Watch a couple clips and tell me you don’t get misty.
5. Scarface
Elvira has simply had enough in this scene as she’s been made to put up with two too many gangsters in her life that treat her like an object to be cast aside or put on a pedestal. She’s not innocent by any means but she still doesn’t deserve to be cast aside when she’s not being used or treated like a second-rate citizen. This was Pfieffer’s big move into the spotlight and it worked beautifully.
4. Wolf
She kind of went to being the unsuspecting love interest to being the toughest woman around throughout the course of this movie since by the end you can see the telltale gleam in her eyes as she’s walking away. That was a nice twist to a movie that otherwise didn’t do all that was expected of it. Jack Nicholson as a werewolf had merit but Pfeiffer was more of the star in this movie.
3. What Lies Beneath
She’s kind of an emotional train wreck in this film since her daughter has left for college, she’s confronted by a neighbor that’s in tears and can’t reconcile her own feelings, and then she thinks the same neighbor has been killed by her husband. Oh yeah, and she’s being passively-aggressively haunted by the ghost of the woman that her husband killed, you know, that kind of thing.
2. I Am Sam
Obviously you don’t need to be perfect or mentally handicapped to feel like your world is crashing down around you. Sam isn’t the only one that tries his best and comes up short, since Pfeiffer’s character is just a few steps shy of a mental breakdown herself. It’s not being perfect that gets you the great life and allows you the happiness you want, it’s working around the imperfections to the best of your ability.
1. Dangerous Minds
Teaching is hard enough. Teaching a group of inner city kids that don’t think they have a shot at anything but the streets is even harder. When one of her troubled students comes to the school for help he’s turned away for not exercising good manners. Despite her attempts to reach him and help him, Pfeiffer is forced to realize that the kids aren’t the only ones that have given up on themselves.
Go on, admit it, you teared up just a little bit. It’s okay.
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