Jackie Earle Haley

In Shutter Island (2010), Jackie Earle Haley's George Noyce is an intense presence in a film already full of strain. Haley has a slight frame, but the physical and vocal force of his acting keeps him from disappearing beside larger performances. We rate him as a supporting actor who makes damaged people worth attending to, even when they are difficult company. He is less interesting when intimidation is all a part requires.

The early roles give that familiar severity some useful context. He broke through as Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears (1976), then played Moocher in Breaking Away (1979), establishing himself in youth ensembles before a long interruption in his screen acting. His return in Little Children (2006) brought a different kind of outsider: Ronald James McGorvey, a sex offender. Haley finds sympathy for him without making sympathy feel like an instruction to forgive.

Shutter Island uses his capacity for unease within Martin Scorsese's gothic thriller. We were unsettled by Haley's intensity as Noyce; it adds to an atmosphere already made anxious by Leonardo DiCaprio's strained, watchful performance. Our reservations about the film concern its length and its insistence on explaining too much, not its ability to hold our attention. Haley's contribution is concentrated enough that we would not make him the sole reason to watch it, but this is a strong place to see what he adds to an ensemble.

The masked roles test a different strength. As Rorschach in Watchmen (2009), he can still make physical and vocal intensity register when his face is covered. That skill does not settle every casting question: his Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) is less distinctive than the part needs. We would not confuse an ability to play frightening men with a reason to keep asking him to do it.

Lincoln (2012), with Haley as Alexander Stephens, takes him into Steven Spielberg's historical ensemble. The bargaining is absorbing, and Daniel Day-Lewis is persuasive even at rest; the attraction here is watching a company of actors take complicated business seriously. The reverence sometimes gets heavy, but the attention paid to the detail earns our patience. For a less obvious evening with Haley, choose Lincoln and give the bargaining its time.