Nina Dobrev makes teenage melodrama credible by letting feelings register without pleading for sympathy. We rate the sincerity she brings to The Vampire Diaries, though her supporting film roles give us less to go on.
Fi1m perspective
Nina Dobrev takes a teenage romance seriously enough to risk looking earnest. In The Vampire Diaries (2009), her Elena Gilbert is vulnerable, but the performance does not keep asking us to feel sorry for her. We found ourselves caring about Elena because Dobrev gives her feelings their full weight, even when the programme around her feels familiar. That sincerity is her most persuasive quality, and the reason we would start here to understand her appeal.
Playing Mia Jones in Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2006 gave her an earlier run at teenage drama. The Vampire Diaries then gave her a lead role and the contrasting parts of Elena and Katherine Pierce. Katherine's manipulative behaviour gives Dobrev something sharper to play than Elena's openness. She makes them recognisably different people, rather than leaving the premise to do the work.
Her work also benefits from having different temperaments beside her. Paul Wesley's Stefan Salvatore sustains the solemnity, while Ian Somerhalder provides welcome mischief. Dobrev's earnestness gives both approaches something to work against, and helps make the romantic drama worth caring about. None of them entirely removes the stiffness of the opening, so some tolerance for the genre remains necessary.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) gives her the supporting role of Candace. We like the film's sympathy, although Stephen Chbosky sometimes piles on more pain than he has time to explore. The performances we chiefly recommend it for are those of Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller. Dobrev has less room here than in the series, so it is not the place we would send someone to understand what she does best.
Her film work also takes in the horror-comedy The Final Girls (2015) and the action film xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017). Those different genres suggest curiosity about what else she might do, though many of her film parts have been supporting ones. We would welcome more substantial film roles that allow her the same sustained attention to a character. Start with The Vampire Diaries, provided teenage melodrama is already your sort of evening.
Biography
Nina Dobrev is a Canadian actress born Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva on 9 January 1989 in Sofia, Bulgaria. She was raised in Toronto after moving to Canada at the age of two. Dobrev began her career with minor film roles before her breakthrough as Mia Jones in the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation (2006–2009).
She rose to prominence portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce in the series The Vampire Diaries (2009–2015). Dobrev played Candace in the 2012 film The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Her other film credits include Let's Be Cops (2014), The Final Girls (2015), Flatliners (2017) and xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017).
