The Best and Worst of Blake Lively

“The Best and Worst of” series chronicles the career highlights and lowlights of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week, I take a look at the filmography of “The Rhythm Section” star Blake Lively.

Films starring Blake Lively that I've seen:
Accepted
The Town
Green Lantern
Savages
The Age of Adaline 
The Shallows
Café Society 
A Simple Favor

Best Performance: A Simple Favor (2018)
Lively's substantial growth as an actor in recent years has been great to watch and the amount of time and effort she's put into working on her craft was on full display in A Simple Favor. Turning in a  funny, imposing and downright devious performance as a mysterious fashion executive who suddenly disappears that helped keep a very uneven film afloat just wouldn't have been possible in the early stages of her career.  

Worst Performance: Green Lantern (2011)
Green Lantern has been long forgotten by just about everyone and if she didn't meet her future husband Ryan Reynolds during the production, Lively would probably be on that list as well. Like just about everything else in this haphazardly-assembled superhero origin story, her performance as the boss/love interest of pilot turned intergalactic superhero Hal Jordan (Reynolds) feels stagnant and embarrassingly half-assed.  

Best Film: The Town (2010)
While Accepted was a hallmark of my teenage years that I still have a lot of love for, I can't pretend that I enjoyed it more than The Town. This heist thriller from Ben Affleck remains my favorite of his directorial efforts by a pretty wide margin. The robbery sequences are tense as hell, the acting is unbelievable and the story surrounding a veteran bank robber (Affleck) who attempts to retire from his life of crime after falling in love with a former hostage (Rebecca Hall) is compelling without ever feeling contrived.

Worst Film: The Age of Adaline (2015)
For the first 45 minutes, The Age of Adaline is a harmless albeit unexceptional fantasy melodrama that made great use of Lively's abundant natural charm. In the latter half, it quickly turns into a borderline creepy love story that piles on the schmaltz until it arrives at a laughably corny boohoo climax that destroyed whatever remained of the initial goodwill it had built up.

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Best and Worst of”. The next victim of my praise and ire will be “Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” star Mary Elizabeth Winstead.