Top 10 Child Actor Performances of All-Time

Hon. Mentions: Justin Henry, Kramer v.s. Kramer; Mary Badham and Philip Alford, To Kill a Mockingbird; Tom Holland, The Impossible; Brandon de Wilde, Goodbye, My Lady; Jean-Pierre Léaud, The 400 Blows; Jamie Bell. Billy Elliot; Abgail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine; Jackie Cooper, Skippy and The Kid; Freddie Highmore, Finding Neverland; Salvatore Cascio, Cinema Paradiso; Hayley Joel Osment, A.I. Artificial Intelligence; Saoirse Ronan, Atonement; and three which just missed the cut: Hayley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense, Christina Ricci, The Addams Family, Tye Sheridan, Mud

10. Leonardo DiCaprio, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

As someone with an autistic sibling, I have to say I really appreciate the genuine quality of DiCaprio's performance here as he never overdoes the mannerisms, but rather makes them feel so natural to him, that I completely forgot who I was watching onscreen. He plays Arnie Grape with such an endearing sweetness, but also remembers to add the right amount of problematic behaviour to his portrayal. He has fabulous chemistry with Johnny Depp and some great scenes with Darlene Cates, and gives a performance that holds a very special space in my heart.

9. Christian Bale, Empire of the Sun

I hate to say this but I did end up putting slots 8 to 10 in based upon not only how much impact the performances had in themselves, but in terms of their impact overall on the film. I love the work of Josement, Ricci, and Sheridan, and would have put them on this list, but ultimately I went with DiCaprio because he gives such a unique portrayal of a character that could've gone awry. Bale's performance, I put ahead of all these performances because of how much of the film he has to carry at such a young age. It's amazing with what assured confidence he does this as he guides the audience on his heartbreaking journey from spoilt rich brat to a shallow husk of his former self through the treacheries of WWII.

8. Saoirse Ronan, Hanna

Like Bale, Ronan has a great deal of the film to carry on her back, and has even more of a challenge due to the stylized nature of Joe Wright's direction. Ronan acts as the solid anchor of the film, emotionally, as among all the surreal imagery and heartpounding action sequences, and gives an incredibly invested, badass performance as the titular perfect assasin on the run. What's most impressive about her work here is with what ease she can switch from the trained killer who coldly dispatches with people and confronts her enemies, to in sequences where she interacts with people not trying to kill her she reveals a tender, more human side. 

7. Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation

Attah really drives the film, The 400 Blows style, as our avatar into this devastating world of West Africa, where every act of bloodshed and ever life lost is just imprinted all the more vividly on the viewer by Attah's reactions to it. He has some amazing standout scenes like his final speech, but more importantly he gives an excellent depiction of the progression of his character;s journey into hell. Attah's splendid reactionary work was ultimately, alongside another 2015 child performance, lost in the throngs of category confusion, but his brilliant portrayal of innocence lost should not be ignored as it is a raw, realistic performance of great power.

6. Martin Stephens/Pamela Franklin, The Innocents

Child actors in horror films are more often than not used as 'tools' by the director, the effect of the character's presence coming more from the way they are utilized in the film's visual presentation and the auteur's hand rather than the performances (see: Insidious, The Omen, and to an extent The Exorcist). In The Innocents however, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the performances of the children of the household Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) has to take care of, and both do splendidly in conveying both the otherworldy creepiness of the children, while also being convincingly 'innocent' so as to add a layer of ambiguity to their true natures. 

5, Hugh O'Connor, My Left Foot

A performance easily overlooked because of the sheer greatness of the lead performance it is connected to, O'Connor's work as young Christy Brown to Daniel Day-Lewis' older Christy Brown is nevertheless undeniably crucial to the effectiveness of My Left Foot as a film. Without his excellent physical work in showing the ailments and disabilities of young Christy, Day-Lewis' great performance most likely would not have had the effect it does on the viewer. O'Connor conveys a seamless transition into the older Christy by bringing such an impeccable depiction of not just the physical condition of Christy, but also his mindset slowly growing from an impaired 'simpleton' to an increasingly confident young man finding words and his way into the world, without every uttering a single line. An amazing performance, period.

4, Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker

Duke's performance is like O'Connor's, first and foremost, a remarkable physical portrayal. Portraying blindness if nothing to ever simply scoff at as in the wrong hands it can come across as entirely convincing, even in an otherwise pretty great performance it can be distracting (i.e. Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman). Duke joins the likes of John Malkovich, and Ralph Richardson in being completely convincing in her portrayal of not just a blind girl, but also the psychological elements of Helen Keller, a girl who's been spoiled and contained within a little world, and who's slowly brought out of it by Anne Bancroft's Annie Sullivan. Duke never shies away from the violent and ill-tempered traits of the character and develops a moving arc that makes for one of the most touching film endings in 1960's film. Plus her final 'revelatory' scene is a knockout.

3. Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

I used to be in two minds about this performance. On one hand it was undeniably good; on the other hand, I wasn't sure whether my love for it stemmed more from my intense love of the film. After a few re-watches I've concluded that while my love of the film hasn't waned at all, this performance is  just as great even without taking into account my unbridled passion for the picture surrounding it. Wallis' performance holds together the magical world constructed in Beasts of the Southern Wild by being so effortlessly transcendent and spiritual, particularly in the use of her voiceover narration to establish that very particular sense of place and time. At the same time Wallis brings the perfect amount of harsh realism to Hushpuppy's performance by also playing her as not some unearthly child but very much a normal child in many regards. She's a fantastic lead to follow through the whole film and through her chemistry with her onscreen father Dwight Henry, makes the ending of the film resonate as powerfully as it does.

2. Jacob Tremblay, Room

Tremblay's performance was nominated by many awards organisations this past Oscar season in the supporting category which is just ridiculous. Tremblay is the lead of Room, even more so than Brie Larson; the film is almost entirely through his perspective, the first half most certainly is, and this only not makes Tremblay lead, but the most difficult kind of lead. Tremblay never falls into any of the traps that might come with being such a young lead as he never comes across as sanctimonious, and Tremblay excels at making Jack Newsome as just an ordinary 5-year old boy. Now that might sound 'easy' but it really isn't. Tremblay develops such a fascinating relationship with this boy to his mother and his confinement to the titular 'room', a connection that's so understated but so powerful as he creates with his performance alone such a dynamic universe within this one setting. As the film progresses Jack must deal with all sorts of different arcs, ups and downs, and finally an escape to the outside world. The intensity of the moments he leaves room, his fascination with the outside world, his pining for his old life, are all marvellously played by Tremblay. It's fantastic work and were it not for Ian McKellen giving an all-time career best performance in Mr Holmes I would not hesitate in giving Tremblay my 2015 Best Actor win.

1. Natalie Portman, Leon the Professional

I'm generally a bit of an apologist for Portman, not that I think she really gets a lot of hate but rather I feel like she's not given enough love when she really, really excels. I do think her two Oscar-nominated performances in Closer and Black Swan are solid efforts but where the pinnacle of her career stands was most certainly in this, her debut film performance as Mathilda in Leon: The Professional which is in my opinion, easily one of the greatest lead female performances of all-time. Portman's performance is like Tremblay's incredibly understated, as initially just an ordinary kid getting mixed up in circumstances far beyond her control. She's effective at this but where the greatness of her performance really begins kicking in is when her family, most of who in her eyes just trashy, unloving sorts, but who has a younger baby brother she loves and cherishes, are murderered. The scene in which she comes back from the shops and realising this, and pleading for Jean Reno's Leon to come help her, is simply breathtaking acting.

It would be easy for Portman to drop off from this amazing one scene but she never does. The character arc of Mathilda is a tricky one since the audience is expected to continue to root for her even though she begins training to kill under Leon's tutelage, and also tries to initiate a rather questionable relationship with him. Now all this could've just come across as wrong and unappealing but Portman manages to make Mathilda a compelling and sympathetic character by bringing complexity to every aspect of her performance. She never shies away from how shattered and distrurbed Mathilda is by her traumatising experience, never forgetting to bring out the child underneath. She also brings a certain strength and of course badassery to her performance fittingly for a child bent on vengeance. Her journey throughout Luc Besson's masterpiece is one which never fails to emotionally resonate with me, ending on a conclusion not dissimilar to the protagonists of The 400 Blows and Beasts of No Nation actually, although with even more power than either of those films I'd argue. It's a brilliant performance that's not only the greatest child performance of all-time, but is one of the greatest performances of all-time, period.