Eddie Redmayne

When he began signing for cinematic parts, British lead Eddie Redmayne took full advantage of his sweet, open-faced, and congenial appearance, ironically selecting a series of roles that required him to project an undercurrent of intransigent, occasionally pathological emotional extremity blanketed by a cover of innocence. He made his first significant mark in 2006 with two such psychologically demanding roles: that of Alex Forbes, a young murderer cracking under the weight of a severely dysfunctional friendship with his second victim and his own father's mistreatment in the psychological thriller Murderous Intent; and that of Edward Wilson Jr., a CIA suit's son reeling from his father's emotional removal in Robert De Niro's ambitious period drama The Good Shepherd. In 2007, Redmayne waxed equally intense as a young homosexual who commits rueful matricide in Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, and -- on a slightly different note -- donned period costume for a small role in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide