What is the best Ben Whishaw movie?

Spy-franchise gadgets and a much-loved voice role sit beside costume dramas and quiet arthouse leads that played to small audiences. Fans of the big hits and fans of the festival films rarely agree on which comes first.

1. 1
   Paddington 2

   The 2017 sequel directed by Paul King, with Whishaw voicing Paddington as he is wrongly jailed for stealing a pop-up book and Hugh Grant plays the thief.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

   Tom Tykwer's 2006 adaptation of Patrick Suskind's novel, with Whishaw as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an 18th-century perfumer's apprentice who kills to capture scent.
   977pts
3. 3
   No Time to Die

   Cary Joji Fukunaga's 2021 Bond film and Daniel Craig's last as 007, with Whishaw returning as Q for a third time.
   665pts
4. 4
   Cloud Atlas

   The 2012 David Mitchell adaptation by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, in which Whishaw plays several roles, most notably the 1930s composer Robert Frobisher.
   665pts
5. 5
   The Lobster

   Yorgos Lanthimos's 2015 dystopian satire, with Whishaw as the Limping Man, a hotel guest who fakes nosebleeds to match a woman who has them so he can avoid being turned into an animal.
   664pts
6. 6
   Peter Hujar's Day

   Ira Sachs's 2025 film built on a 1974 interview transcript, with Whishaw as photographer Peter Hujar recounting one day to writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall).
   596pts
7. 7
   Mary Poppins Returns

   Rob Marshall's 2018 Disney musical sequel, with Whishaw as the grown-up, widowed Michael Banks facing the loss of the family home on Cherry Tree Lane.
   596pts
8. 8
   Limonov: The Ballad

   Kirill Serebrennikov's 2024 Cannes competition film, with Whishaw in the title role as Russian poet and political agitator Eduard Limonov.
   596pts
9. 9
   The Danish Girl

   Tom Hooper's 2015 drama about Lili Elbe, with Whishaw as Henrik, a man who courts Eddie Redmayne's Lili in Copenhagen.
   596pts
10. 10
    Paddington in Peru

    The 2024 third Paddington film, directed by Dougal Wilson, in which Whishaw's bear travels back to Peru to find his missing Aunt Lucy.
    596pts
11. 11
    Passages

    Ira Sachs's 2023 Paris-set relationship drama, with Whishaw as Martin, whose husband Tomas (Franz Rogowski) begins an affair with a woman played by Adele Exarchopoulos.
    517pts
12. 12
    Lilting

    Hong Khaou's 2014 debut feature, with Whishaw as Richard, a grieving man trying to connect with his late partner's Cambodian-Chinese mother who speaks no English.
    517pts
13. 13
    The Tempest

    Julie Taymor's 2010 Shakespeare adaptation that recasts Prospero as Prospera (Helen Mirren), with Whishaw as the spirit Ariel.
    423pts
14. 14
    Brideshead Revisited

    Julian Jarrold's 2008 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, with Whishaw as the aristocratic Sebastian Flyte alongside Matthew Goode and Emma Thompson.
    423pts
15. 15
    Suffragette

    Sarah Gavron's 2015 drama about the women's suffrage movement in 1912 London, with Whishaw as Sonny Watts, the husband of Carey Mulligan's laundry worker Maud.
    423pts
16. 16
    Bright Star

    Jane Campion's 2009 drama starring Whishaw as the poet John Keats opposite Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne; it competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
    423pts
17. 17
    Women Talking

    Sarah Polley's 2022 drama, winner of the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, with Whishaw as August Epp, the schoolteacher who records the women's debate.
    310pts
18. 18
    Surge

    Aneil Karia's 2020 London thriller, with Whishaw as Joseph, an airport security worker who unravels over one day; he won a Sundance Special Jury Award for the role.
    310pts
19. 19
    Spectre

    The 2015 Bond film directed by Sam Mendes, in which Whishaw's Q helps Bond hunt the criminal organisation led by Christoph Waltz's Blofeld.
    310pts
20. 20
    Layer Cake

    Matthew Vaughn's 2004 British crime thriller starring Daniel Craig, with Whishaw as Sidney, the nephew of Jamie Foreman's gangster the Duke.
    310pts
21. 21
    Stoned

    Stephen Woolley's 2005 drama about the death of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, with Whishaw playing Keith Richards.
    310pts
22. 22
    In the Heart of the Sea

    Ron Howard's 2015 account of the 1820 sinking of the whaleship Essex, framed by Whishaw's young Herman Melville interviewing a survivor.
    0pts
23. 23
    Paddington

    Paul King's 2014 family comedy in which Whishaw voices the marmalade-loving bear from Darkest Peru who is taken in by the Brown family in London.
    0pts
24. 24
    I'm Not There

    Todd Haynes's 2007 Bob Dylan film, in which Whishaw is one of six actors embodying facets of Dylan, playing a poet named Arthur Rimbaud under interrogation.
    0pts
25. 25
    Skyfall

    Sam Mendes's 2012 James Bond film, Whishaw's first outing as quartermaster Q opposite Daniel Craig, which grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide.
    0pts

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