Natalie Portman's career has spanned fourteen years, a surprising fact given that she is only twenty six years of age, making her debut at the tender age of thirteen in 1994.Since then the Golden Globe winning and Oscar nominated actress has moved seamlessly from the big blockbusters like Star Wars to the independents like Garden State.We take a look back at her career and pick out its performance highlights.

1. Closer

Her performance as stripper Alice Ayres earned the actress her first and only Academy Award as she starred alongside Julia Roberts, Clive Owen and Jude Law.Directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Birdcage, Working Girl), Closer questions the nature of relationships and fidelity as it follows the tangled web created by Dan (Jude Law), Alice (Natalie Portman), Anna (Julia Roberts), and Larry (Clive Owen). Dan, a British writer of obituaries, and Alice, a young American stripper, meet in the film's opening scene when a London cab runs her down.

Cut to a year later: Dan and Alice are now a couple, but he is suddenly smitten with Anna, a beautiful American photographer.

In an ironic twist of fate, Anna meets Larry, a British doctor, and they are soon a couple, despite Dan's continuing obsession.

But the entanglements don't end there, and ultimately, someone is sure to get hurt.

On a production budget of just $27 million the film went on to gross $115 million at the global box office making the film a massive hit.

Both Portman and Clive Owen were nominated for an Oscar. Portman also received nominations at the Baftas, Golden Globes and the Broadcast Film Critics Association - Winning the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

2. Garden State

Andrew Largeman shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, Andrew hasn't been home to the "Garden State" in nine years.

But even with 3,000 miles between them, he's been unable to escape his domineering father Gideon and the silencing effect he has had on his son from afar.

Stunned to find himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living quite unique lives as gravediggers, fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes.

Meanwhile, at home, he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father.

By a twist of fate, Large meets Sam (Portman), a girl who is everything he isn't. A blast of colour, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick who refuses to ride in his sidecar.

Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life.

Written, directed and starring Zach Braff Garden State was filmed over just twenty five days on a budget of $2.5 million.

The film was met well by the critics and went on to be a nominee for the Grand Jury prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

3. Leon

Leon or Leon The Professional was Natalie Portman's debut movie at the age of thirteen, starring alongside Jean Reno and Gary Oldman and directed by Luc Besson.

A corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration boss and his thugs murder Mathilda's family in a drug deal gone awry.

Orphaned by the massacre, Mathilda is forced to take shelter in the apartment of a neighbour, Leon, whom she knows only slightly.

He's a loner and first generation immigrant, who also happens to be a professional hitman.

He's never had reason to care about anybody and she has no one else to turn to.

Together they form a makeshift father and daughter bond that will forever change both their lives.

4. V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta was the first bigger budget movie that the young actress had headlined, and was based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

Against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, a young working-class woman named Evey is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man known only as "V."

Profoundly complex, V is at once literary, flamboyant, tender and intellectual, a man dedicated to freeing his fellow citizens from those who have terrorized them into compliance.

He is also bitter, revenge-seeking, lonely and violent, driven by a personal vendetta. In his quest to free the people of England from the corruption and cruelty that have poisoned their government, V condemns the tyrannical nature of their appointed leaders and invites his fellow citizens to join him in the shadows of Parliament of November the 5th--Guy Fawkes Day.

On that day in 1605, Guy Fawkes was discovered in a tunnel beneath Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder.

He and his co-conspirators had engineered the treasonous "Gunpowder Plot" in response to the tyranny of their government under James I.

Fawkes and his fellow saboteurs were hanged, drawn and quartered, and their plan to take down their government never came to pass.

In the spirit of that rebellion, in remembrance of that day, V vows to carry out the plot that Fawkes was executed for attempting on November 5th in 1605: he will blow up Parliament.

The film did well critically and went on to gross over $130 million globally.

However some groups rejected the movie because it tackled issues of race, sexuality, religion, totalitarianism, and terrorism.

For her role she won the The Constellation Awards, Best Female Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series and the Saturn Award for Best Actress.

5. Free Zone

When entered a cab in Jerusalem one day Rebecca (Portman), an American woman ho has a Jewish father, she meets driver Hanna (Hanna Laslo). Hanna's destination is the Free Zone in the Jordan-Iraq-Saudi border, where she is to collect money owed to her husband after being wounded in a Palestinian rocket attack.

When they reach the free Zone the two women meet Laila (Hiam Abbass), a Palestinian woman who serves as the contact for Hanna's husband's black market activities.

The three women set off together to obtain Hanna's money.

The film only received a limited release but it was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival where Hanna Laslo won Best Actress.

The Other Boleyn Girl is released 7th March

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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