The Best and Worst of Chiwetel Ejiofor

The "Best and Worst" series profiles the best and worst work of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week I take a look at the filmography of "Doctor Strange" star Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor that I've seen:
Love Actually
Four Brothers
Serenity 
Inside Man
American Gangster
Salt
12 Years a Slave
The Martian
Secret in Their Eyes
Triple 9 

Best Performance: 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Despite the fact that I find 12 Years a Slave to be an overrated film, there's no denying that Ejiofor is absolutely brilliant in it. Ejiofor's turn as Solomon Northup-a free African-American man working as a violinist in upstate New York who is duped into taking a job in Washington D.C. and promptly sold into slavery in 1841-is remarkably powerful and manages to prevent Steve McQueen's uneven film from ever completely collapsing.   

Worst Performance: Salt (2010)
After getting his career in American films off to a nice start with well-received films like American Gangster, Inside Man and Talk to Me, Ejiofor finally attached himself to a huge dud with Philip Noyce's (The Bone Collector, Clear and Present Danger) Salt. While Kurt Wimmer's awful script  certainly doesn't help matters, Ejiofor is still far too stoic to make his stock character (by-the-books FBI agent who isn't sure who he can trust in an international espionage case) in this overly serious pile of manure work on any sort of level.

Best Film: American Gangster (2007) 
I'll never understand why American Gangster doesn't get more love from the moviegoing public. It's consistently riveting, the acting from everyone in its massive ensemble cast is sensational and the script from Steve Zaillian does an excellent job of subverting cliches while exploring the rise and fall of Harlem-based heroin kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington in one of his finest performances). With the exception of Gladiator, I firmly believe this is Ridley Scott's most impressive post-Alien film.  

Worst Film: Love Actually (2003)
Richard Curtis is a well-respected veteran writer/director whose films I'm not really familiar with. If the rest of his work is anything like Love Actually, the only movie of his that I've actually seen, I'm elated that I've managed to successfully avoid his work. Love Actually is so full of sappiness, artificial melodrama and weak jokes that I felt like I was watching a star-studded, two-hour commercial for Hallmark. If Christmas ever ends up being canceled, I'm going to put all of the blame on this holiday-themed atrocity.   

Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". Next week, I'll take a look at the best and worst work of "Arrival" star Amy Adams