Skip to content, or skip to search.

vulture lists

The 14 Most Thankless Female Roles of the Year

From one year to the next, the number of meaty, satisfying roles for actresses can vary dramatically. (This year hasn't been so bad.) But from one year to the next, the number of slight, unsatisfying, thankless roles for actress varies hardly at all: You can always count on lots of those. 2010 has been no exception, giving many women the opportunity to put their skills to very little use by playing variations on scolds, crazy bitches, babes with no character, and attractive scenery. (Thankless is distinct from just bad: Katherine Heigl's part in Killers was bad, but because she toplined the movie and had a lot of gun-waving to do, it wasn't quite thankless.) With the end of the year in sight, we've rounded up the most egregious instances of under- or misusing a woman in film, and come up with this list of the fourteen most thankless lady roles of the year.

Photo: Paramount