Let’s be real—Gwyneth Paltrow is one of Hollywood’s most fascinating contradictions. She’s an Oscar winner, a rom-com sweetheart, a Marvel mainstay, and the founder of one of the most divisive lifestyle brands on Earth. Whether you’re rolling your eyes at her Goop wellness claims or secretly admiring her performance in Shakespeare in Love, there’s no denying that Paltrow’s career has been as unpredictable as it is impressive. So grab a cup of herbal tea (preferably infused with moon dust, if you’re going full Goop) and let’s count down the 10 best films that prove why Gwyneth remains one of Hollywood’s most intriguing stars, love her or not.
10. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Gwyneth’s body of work is full of surprises, but few as delightful as this. In Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, she’s Polly Perkins, a gutsy reporter caught up in a crazy pulp-inspired realm of robot aircraft and vintage sci-fi bedlam. Paltrow’s snappy dialogue and screwball delivery are a delight against Jude Law’s vintage hero posturing, taming the movie’s stylized insanity. It’s bizarre, it’s beautiful, and it’s unlike anything she’s ever done.
9. Contagion (2011)
Paltrow’s on-screen time in Steven Soderbergh’s pandemic thriller is short but indelible, largely because her character is patient zero. Her premature departure sparks the whole worldwide panic, and she sells it with unnerving verisimilitude. When the world experienced a real-life pandemic many years later, Contagion turned eerily prescient, and Gwyneth’s performance seemed all the more iconic in retrospect.
8. Hard Eight (1997)
Before becoming tied to upscale candles and wholesome living, Paltrow honed her skills on scrappy indie dramas. In Paul Thomas Anderson’s Hard Eight, she stars as Clementine, a casino waitress with quick edges and vulnerability that make her impossible to ignore. The romance she has with John C. Reilly provides the film with its emotional pulse, and it’s one of those early performances that subtly intimated her legitimate acting ability.
7. Great Expectations (1998)
Alfonso Cuarón’s updating of Dickens’ classic presents us with Paltrow in full style mode—as Estella, the ice queen who keeps Ethan Hawke’s Finn forever on his toes. Wearing sleek green and oozing cool indifference, she adds glamour and subtlety to the character. It’s the ’90s look condensed into a single film, and Gwyneth embodies it wholeheartedly.
6. Se7en (1995)
It’s easy to forget that one of Paltrow’s most haunting performances came in one of the darkest thrillers ever made. In David Fincher’s Se7en, she plays Tracy Mills, the emotional center of a world drowning in brutality. Her quiet, tender scenes with Morgan Freeman bring humanity to the horror, and her devastating fate gives the film its unforgettable sting.
5. Two Lovers (2009)
In James Gray’s sad romance, Paltrow is Michelle, a troubled woman caught up in Joaquin Phoenix’s emotional turmoil. It’s not exactly a love story—it’s gritty, somber, and starkly real. Paltrow is warm and fragile in the role, a reminder that she shines when she’s portraying fallible, very human characters.
4. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Margot Tenenbaum is peak Wes Anderson, mysterious, eyelinered, and eternally sorrowful. Paltrow’s deadpan reading and understated intensity are the emotional center of this quirky family dramedy. Her slow-motion reunion with Luke Wilson, to Nico’s These Days, is one of the most treasured scenes in indie film history. Margot is not so much a character as she is a cultural mood.
3. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Few movies are as effective at conveying glamour and fear as The Talented Mr. Ripley. As Marge Sherwood, Paltrow exudes sympathy and suspicion, anchoring the film’s psychological tension. Her increasing awareness of the real state of affairs about Matt Damon’s Ripley is cold in its restrained quietness. It’s one of her more under-appreciated performances, elegant, subtle, and shattering.
2. Emma (1996)
Prior to Bridgerton bringing period charm into fashion, there was Emma. Paltrow’s portrayal of Jane Austen’s interfering matchmaker is breezy, witty, and completely charming. Her rapport with Jeremy Northam is pure gold, and she electrifies every line. It’s the movie that established her as Hollywood royalty, demonstrating she could pull off a classic with wit and brains.
1. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
The part that established her career, and, for good or ill, the one she’ll be remembered for. Paltrow is vivacity, elegance, and a touch of magic as Viola de Lesseps in this romantic era dramedy. The Oscar campaign for the movie may have been chaotic, but not her performance here; she’s riveting from beginning to end. Whether you think she deserved her Oscar or not, there’s no questioning that Shakespeare in Love is Gwyneth at her brightest.
Paltrow’s on-screen career is far from the extent of her work. Since then, she’s become a wellness empire builder, rebranding celebrity entrepreneurship in the form of Goop, to both acclaim and outrage. Whether she’s hawking jade eggs or co-starring as Pepper Potts in Iron Man, Gwyneth Paltrow remains of interest because she has never hesitated to change, to baffle, or to provoke. Love her or eye-roll her, there’s no one else like her. And these 10 movies are evidence that under the headlines, the products, and the parodies, there’s a woman who’s left her mark on contemporary Hollywood.