5 of Natalie Portman's best roles that aren't Star Wars

When I first saw The Phantom Menace, I knew Natalie Portman from exactly one thing. I had recently watched Everyone Says I Love You and found her to be the one character in my first Woody Allen experience who didn't drive me completely crazy. She played a mixed-up kid, and I enjoyed laughing at her part in the mess. Natalie has had a wide-ranging and impressive career, whether as assassin's protege Mathilda in Leon: The Professional or the widow Sara in Cold Mountain.

Here are five of Natalie Portman's standout roles in no particular order.

1. Evey Hammond, V for Vendetta

"Kitty's got claws" is one of the first things we know about the main female lead in V for Vendetta, the dystopian story of a man who draws inspiration from The Count of Monte Cristo. Evey is dolled up and taking risks, especially when predators corner her in an alley late at night. She regrets her decision to pull pepper spray on them as soon as she realizes they're lawmen for the totalitarian government and is saved just in time by a masked man who asks her to call him V.

Natalie's evolution from a victim of others' zealotry to an anarchist force of her own is a masterpiece of storytelling. Set against the ways in which she humanizes the terrorist who is empowering Great Britain's citizens, some of her best moments are rendered in a tone that is almost dissociative and bitterly nostalgic. Of course, her liberation from fear through a staged imprisonment is fantastic.

2. Nina Sayers, Black Swan

Natalie Portman's performance in Darren Aronofsky's film Black Swan was one I considered worthy of an Oscar as soon as the credits rolled, and I'm glad the Academy agreed. On the surface, it might be about a talented dancer driven to distraction by the demands of her job. Taken another way, it chronicles the great and terrible things that happen when Nina permits herself to have a less regimented life. You could even make the argument that it is about the need to die to your childhood in order to live as a woman.

An undeniably talented ballerina in New York City, Nina begins and ends the movie with perfection as her aim. However, she struggles to define what she expects of herself in the process. She has a history of self-harm that manifests itself more often as Nina grows in her role as Odette/Odile from Swan Lake. She is socially at odds with her peers, defending a retiring dancer at the beginning, and literally stabbing her rival at the height of the movie. Natalie's ability to be vulnerable and powerful is on full display.

3. Ann August, Anywhere But Here

What strikes me most about Portman's role in the 1999 film Anywhere But Here with Susan Sarandon is her ability to shut down what we'd now call "main character energy." Ann's mother insists that she's always dreamed of being a movie star and living the high life, but Ann is a relentlessly steady character. She studies hard and manages finances. She unsuccessfully attempts to repair family rifts. When her mother won't say anything about her father, Ann tracks him down and bravely confronts his decision to leave the family before collapsing in tears and accepting the support of her friends. She insists on living her own version of a dream life and learns to appreciate the ways in which her erratic mother has made it possible. It doesn't mean that she does so without a very realistic emotional expression.

This movie came out in September after The Phantom Menace, and it's hard to believe that this person who chews the scenery on the one occasion that she chases her mother's Hollywood dreams is the same actress who reclaimed her world from the Trade Federation. Ann is a perfectly ordinary person, and the result is effective.

4. Jane Foster, Thor

I won't rank the Thor movies here since I would have to debate the merits of The Mighty Thor vs. the research scientist who hit a god with her van...twice. I was thrilled when Natalie Portman took the stage at San Diego Comic-Con wearing a cute dress and wielding Mjolnir. I also laughed at her character for defacing her own book to teach a lesson in astrophysics.

Portman is an Ivy League graduate, and we've known all along that she has a sharp mind and wit. Jane Foster again channels the side of her that wants to constantly be learning, but she's also an extremely loyal character. I enjoy her dysfunctional relationship with her intern Darcy as much as her devotion to the hunk who came from Asgard. It's also good to see her show an offbeat side of her humor.

5. Jacqueline Kennedy, Jackie

This biopic of the First Lady of John F. Kennedy, Jackie, reminds me of The Queen. In that film, which won Helen Mirren an Academy Award, she portrays Queen Elizabeth II in the tumultuous days following Princess Diana's death as she responds privately and publicly to a shared national tragedy. Jackie covers the time following Jackie's husband's assassination and the tempest of feelings that accompanied the events that followed.

One of the most affecting scenes in the movie is when Natalie describes the ride from the assassination site to the hospital. She grows more distraught as she describes the head wound that she tried to staunch and the expression on her husband's face as he lay dying in her lap, and then she becomes absolutely still for the moment that she pronounces him dead. For the next forty seconds, we witness her weeping as she cleans the blood from her face, a moment of terrible grief and self-care as she tries to restore some composure when it's impossible.

Natalie Portman is a treasure, and there are many more on her filmography list. We look forward to seeing what she does next.