These Are The 30 Greatest Performances of Meryl Streep’s Iconic Career

15. The Hours (2002)

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Featuring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Streep, The Hours is worth your time. The film can be smothering in its studied sadness, but Streep lends some much-needed heart to this glassy adaptation. Streep’s character Larissa is living as a lesbian. She and her partner (Allison Janney) are raising a daughter (Claire Danes), and also caring for their friend Richard (Ed Harris) now dying of AIDS. Streep is quiet, subtle, and reserved. This is a performance in which the somber, thoughtful reactions are more important and moving than the flowery speeches.