Jessie Buckley

In Women Talking (2022), Jessie Buckley’s Mariche keeps her mouth tight and her replies quick. She is angriest with the women who have choices, and Buckley does not soften that resentment to make her more agreeable. Sarah Polley gives her room to be difficult alongside Claire Foy and Rooney Mara. The speed of her replies makes these exchanges uncomfortable: there is little chance of a conciliatory word getting through.

The breakthrough lead was aspiring country singer Rose-Lynn Harlan in Wild Rose (2018). I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020) and Men (2022) took her towards stranger material; between them came the younger Leda Caruso in The Lost Daughter (2021). The ensembles matter just as much to our view of her. She is alert to what another actor gives her to push against, which can be more revealing than watching her carry a film alone.

In Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters (2024), her Rose Gooding drinks, swears and gives Olivia Colman’s Edith something to envy. The early scenes work because Buckley’s freedom makes Colman’s restraint look increasingly painful, with Edith unable to decide how much she disapproves. Yet the swearing becomes repetitive, and Buckley cannot supply the sadder story the script keeps avoiding.

Hamnet (2025) gives her more to carry as Agnes, quick and barefoot in the woods, watchful inside the house. Chloé Zhao gets a performance that never seems to plead with us, even when Agnes falls apart. Zhao and co-editor Affonso Gonçalves hold the faces too long, while Richter’s strings keep insisting on how much we should feel. Buckley carries the film, but she cannot make that middle hour less overbearing.

In Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2026 Frankenstein film, her Bride tests the floor before she trusts it, finding comedy in learning how to stand. Lawrence Sher’s amber laboratory and Karen Murphy’s brass-and-tile rooms give her a handsome place to do it, but Gyllenhaal rarely keeps the film settled for long. We laughed at Buckley’s first dance, then found ourselves moved because the film had let her be a person without explaining what she stood for. Her physical assurance is a pleasure even when the film cannot decide what to do with her. Start with Women Talking, and forgive the drained colour.