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Dan In Real Life

A few months ago, I got caught up in a (friendly) Twitter argument about whether or not Emily Blunt is famous. I said she was. I was right, and the reason you know I was right is because when I say “Emily Blunt,” that person you’re picturing in my head without me having to specify who I’m talking about is Emily Blunt. But what my argumentative friend was getting at was something that’s stuck with me since: Emily Blunt should probably be an A-lister by now; she’s one of a handful of actresses who Hollywood reliably casts in lead roles . She’s a tremendously talented actress who gives great performances (even in garbage). But she hasn’t broken through to that A-list tier, and it’s mostly because the films she’s been in have let her down. With The Girl on the Train opening this weekend, it’ll be yet another chance for Blunt to score a major hit with American audiences.

Why hasn’t it happened before now, though? Let’s take a look at her filmography up to this point:

The Devil Wears Prada: Blunt gets her big breakthrough role here, playing first receptionist to Meryl Streep’s Miranda Pirestley and sub-antagonist to Anne Hathaway’s character. Blunt’s clipped efficiency and exasperated cruelty has her stealing several scenes in the film, and she manages to get a Golden Globe nomination in the bargain (something not even Hathaway could pull off, and Hathaway was only up against other musical/comedy actresses). [Where to stream The Devil Wears Prada.]
Here’s where Blunt’s career goes down some odd and unappreciated paths. She follows up with what may well be the most thankless role an actress could get, playing the forgotten double-date girl in two scenes of the comedy flop Dan in Real Life, where she gets blithely dropped by Steve Carell in favor of Juliette Binoche (which, you know, can’t fight City Hall, fine) and has to end up with Dane Cook and her character is referred to as “Pigface.” You hate to wish unemployment on anyone, but it would make me very happy to learn that someone on Team Blunt got fired for this one. [Where to stream Dan in Real Life]
Blunt’s first leading roles comes in the odd little ensemble film The Jane Austen Book Club and Sunshine Cleaning, a textbook Sundance-style indie where Blunt first shows off her incredible skill at playing sisters, here to Amy Adams. Beginning something of a theme here, Blunt is good, but nobody sees these movies. [Where to stream Sunshine Cleaning and The Jane Austen Book Club]
The Young Victoria: Another lead role for Blunt, and another Golden Globe nomination, but arty costume dramas are only the path to A-list status if you’re Cate Blanchett. [Where to stream The Young Victoria]
The Wolfman: So four years after her breakthrough role, Blunt gets her first big-budget, mainstream Hollywood movie, and it’s the female lead opposite Benicio Del Toro as a werewolf. She spends a lot of time looking scared. The movie is TERRIBLE. [Where to stream The Wolfman]
Gulliver’s Travels: Here, again, she’s the female lead, this time opposite Jack Black, in a truly awful big-budgeted Hollywood affair. There are dues that have to be paid, of course, and many (too many) Hollywood actresses have to take these thankless parts in bad movies to move up the ladder, but however you look at it, Blunt keeps picking clunkers. [Where to stream Gulliver’s Travels]
The Adjustment Bureau: Okay, this one should have worked. (Honestly, if you want to divide Blunt’s career into three types of projects, they are Big-Budget Garbage, Great Indies No One Saw, and This One Should Have Worked.) Blunt’s chemistry with Matt Damon is off the charts, and the movie is stylish as heck, but audiences don’t connect with it. [Where to stream The Adjustment Bureau]
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: Another Golden Globe nomination. Somehow. Zero people saw this movie. [Where to stream Salmon Fishing in the Yemen]
Your Sister’s Sister: If not Blunt’s best performance to date, it’s up there. This one’s another indie, and it’s (obviously) another sister role, this time to Rosemarie DeWitt, and it’s just a wonderful little movie all around, but it was just way too small to make a dent with the public, unfortunately. [Where to stream Your Sister’s Sister]
The Five-Year Engagement: This One Should Have Worked. Somehow, not even hitching her wagon to the Judd Apatow traveling band of repertory players worked, despite another great performance. The film is the third-lowest grossing Apatow-produced movie of all time, behind such clearly inferior efforts as Year One and Drillbit Taylor. [Where to stream The Five-Year Engagement]
Looper: This One Should Have Worked, though it was a massive critical fave. It never tore it up at the box-office, though you could say it wasn’t exactly built like a comedy. For a Rian Johnson movie, $66 million was a smash. But it’s still hard to look at a movie this good and think it’s a shame it wasn’t big enough to elevate Blunt’s career. [Where to stream Looper]
Edge of Tomorrow: This One REALLY Should Have Worked. Doug Liman’s film is one of the ten best summer blockbusters of the past decade, and audiences styed away in droves. It is SO frustrating. Particularly since Blunt gives one of her best performances, gets to be a legit action hero, and has the whole movie essentially working to create a massive action-star in Emily Blunt. It’s around this point that you start to think America doesn’t deserve her. [Where to stream Edge of Tomorrow]
Into the Woods: Another Golden Globe nomination! This was a daunting role that Blunt does very well with, but the Stephen Sondheim adaptation was never going to be a Chicago-style smash hit. [Where to stream Into the Woods]
Sicario: Blunt’s first lead role in a legit awards-contender is probably another Should Have Worked. It mostly did work, but Blunt’s lead performance never gets any Oscar traction. [Where to stream Sicario]
The Huntsman: Winter’s War: Now it’s 2016 and somehow we’re back to horrendous blockbusters again? This one probably looked great on paper, with Blunt and Charlize Theron getting to mix it up as rival wicked queens, but the movie is garbage and goes nowhere. [Where to stream The Huntsman: Winter’s War]

And so here we are with The Girl on the Train. That train has a legitimate, elite, A-list actress onboard, and it’s only a matter of time before the project comes along that will get everybody else onboard too.