Anna Paquin is a Canadian-born actress who spent most of her formative years in New Zealand. She began acting from an early age (when she was only 11 years old) and at that age, she won an Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Piano – a romantic movie released in 1993. This made her the second youngest person to receive an Oscar. Her success story didn’t stop there as she continued to bag lots of awards as her career advanced.
She has featured in movies and television shows such as Fly Away Home (1996), The Member of the Wedding (1997), Jane Eyre (1996), Amistad (1997), 25th Hour (2002), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Margaret (2011), The Good Dinosaur (2015), True Blood (2008–2014) and so on. Having been in so many good movies, it becomes a Herculean task to categorize Anna Paquin movies from best to worst. However, the following movies listed below have been carefully selected beginning from her best to her worst. They were ranked based on features such as commercial and critical success as well as audience reception.
The Best and Worst of Anna Paquin Movies and TV Shows
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
The X-Men series is a superhero series that is produced by Marvel Studios and has run for 9 years. This particular installment – X-Men: Days of Future Past – is the 7th in the franchise. It is based on X-Men Series by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and this particular installment is based on the 1981 Days of Future Past storyline by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Its screenplay was written by Simon Kinberg and directed by Bryan Singer.
This thrilling action-packed series is centered on two periods of time: the past and the future. Wolverine travels back into the past to prevent the events that would lead to the doom of both humans and mutants.
The movie is critically acclaimed. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics scored it a smashing 90%. It also received high ratings from critics on other reviewing sites. It was equally applauded by the audience with a score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes as per audience ratings and 8/10 on IMDb. Commercially, it recorded huge success with box office sales of $747.9 million against a budget of $200-220 million.
The Piano (1993)
The Piano is a romantic period movie set in New Zealand. It was written, produced, and directed by Jane Campion. Starring alongside Anna were Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Kerry Walker, and Genevieve Lemon. This movie was extremely successful. It won a lot of awards and shot many actors to fame.
This Anna Paquin movie follows the story of a young lady who has a psychological mute disorder and is obsessed with her piano. Because of the latter, her arranged marriage is failing.
Not only is this movie a huge success with critics, it is also an absolute box office hit. With a production budget of only $7 million, it was able to gross a whopping $140 million at the box office. On Rotten Tomatoes critics gave it a 92% rating, while the audience rated it 86%. It scored 7.6/10 on IMDb.
X-Men (2000)
This X-Men film released in 2000 is the first of the series and it was a huge commercial success. It realized $296.3 million at the box office against a budget of $75 million. This Anna Paquin movie was written by David Hayter and is based on a comic book with the same name written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The movie was directed by Bryan Singer and had a star-studded cast which included Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, among others.
Anna Paquin plays the role of Rogue, one of the female mutants and a member of the X-Men. This film is plotted around a story of a conflict between two mutant groups – the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants – who have different views on how to ensure mutant acceptance among humans.
Critically acclaimed and commercially successful, the X-Men movie was a hit when it was released. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes rated it 81% while the audience scored it 83%. Also, it had an audience rating of 7.4/10 according to IMDb.
X-Men 2 (2003)
Anna Paquin played a reoccurring role in the X-Men franchise and that wasn’t a decision she would ever regret because all the X-Men installments she featured in were all hits. This particular Anna Paquin movie follows a story of the rise of a new enemy who threatens the past and the future of mutants. Former enemies, Professor Xavier and Magneto unite to defeat this common enemy.
The script was written by Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, and David Hayter. It was directed by Bryan Singer and like its predecessors, it was based on a comic book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Playing the character of Rogue again, Anna starred alongside most of the cast from the first installment such as Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Hugh Jackman, and Patrick Stewart.
Like the prequel, the Anna Paquin movie was also a box office hit, grossing $407 million from a film budget of $110-125 million. It was also critically acclaimed as its predecessor. As for audience ratings, they were very high. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was rated 85% and 7.4/10 on IMDb.
A Walk On The Moon (1999)
Despite being well spoken of by critics and the audience, this 1999 indie film was a commercial disaster. It fell abysmally at the box office, grossing only $4 million against a budget of $14 million. It was very disappointing indeed. However, it was rated 72% by critics on Rotten Tomatoes as well as the audience. On iMDb, the movie was given a 6/10 score.
A Walk on The Moon is a movie about a young unfulfilled housewife Pearl Kantrowitz whose adulterous affair threatens to destroy her marriage. Anna Paquin takes the role of Pearl’s daughter, Alison Kantrowitz. The movie was scripted by Pamela Gray and directed by Tony Goldwyn. It had such casts as Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, and Liev Schreiber.
Tell It To The Bees (2018)
In this romantic drama, Anna Paquin plays the role of a Scottish lesbian who falls in love with a woman who has a young son. The movie was written by Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth and is based on a 2009 novel of the same name written by Fiona Shaw. It was directed by Annabel Jankel and had an ensemble cast that included Holliday Grainger, Emun Elliott, Kate Dickie, and Lauren Lyle.
The movie was greeted with mixed reactions from critics worldwide. It recorded average ratings as seen on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics scored it 47%. Also, It was rated 50/100 on Metacritic. It was loved by some section of the audience who rated it 82% on Rotten Tomatoes and averagely appreciated by those on IMDb who gave it a 5.8/10 rating.
It’s The Rage (1998)
Written by Keith Reddin and directed by James D. Stern, this Anna Paquin movie – which is the remake of the play – was a complete debacle. It lost out on the critics as well as the audience. It had an abysmal critic rating of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and faired similarly with the audience who rated it 44% and 5.5 on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb respectively. It is uncertain what the movie earned at the box office as the records are not available online.
Anna Paquin plays an aggressive street kid who likes to complain to her pistol-carrying unstable brother. The actress worked alongside other seasoned actors such as Joan Allen, Andre Braugher, Josh Brolin, Jeff Daniels, and Robert Forster.
The Romantics (2010)
We bet the producers thought they were making another hilarious comedy movie only to release a monumental blunder completely set up for multiple Golden Raspberry Awards. The Romantics was a box office flop, grossing only $123,000 against a movie made with $4 million. It also did badly with the critics as it had mostly negative reviews and low ratings. On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics gave it a miserly 14%. Its audience approval rating was also abysmal, falling to 21% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.5 on IMDb.
The movie tells the story of seven friends who unite for the wedding of two of their friends only to find trouble caused by a squabble for the groom by both the bride and the maid of honor – with Anna Paquin playing Lila Hayes, the bride.
This movie was written and directed by Galt Niederhoffer and produced by Michael Benaroya. The cast for this Anna Paquin movie includes Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Malin Åkerman, Adam Brody, and Dianna Agron.
The Open House (2010)
This slasher film is regarded as the worst movie Anna Paquin has ever been on. It was a directorial debut for her brother, Andrew Paquin, sadly, not his best starter. This movie had no theatrical release and was only screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. Hence, it has not many reviews and its critical success cannot be analyzed. It was however bashed by the audience as it was rated 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.3/10 on IMDb by the audience. The movie is centered on the horrors a woman faces after her home was invaded by two couples who locked her up in her crawlspace.
