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Even though Ralph Fiennes only joined the Harry Potter movie series in the fourth movie, he quickly became one of the most important faces of the story. After all, every hero needs a proper antagonist, and there was no bigger threat for Harry than Lord Voldemort. However, just like his Harry Potter fellow actors, Ralph Fiennes has done many other, often more civil roles, as he's been acting professionally for decades now.
While some of his movies became big hits and amassed hundreds of thousands of ratings online, others flew more under the radar despite the fact that they have a lot to offer not just to Ralph Fiennes' fans but moviegoers overall.
5 Wuthering Heights (1992)
Those viewers who primarily know Ralph Fiennes from playing Voldemort in Harry Potter might be surprised by the fact that he played the handsome, yet romantically torn hero in more than one movie. Wuthering Heights is based on the famous classic novel by Emily Brontë. Even though the novel has been adapted multiple times, the 1992 version remains one of the best. Its heroes are far from perfect as the story centers on Heathcliff, a man who falls for his friend Cathy (Juliette Binoche) while they're both very young but grows bitter and revengeful when Cathy marries another man.
The story ultimately comes across as tragic and shows that even love sometimes isn't enough. Quite the opposite - it can make things more difficult and hurt people. Playing Heathcliff was one of the first major feature film roles for Ralph Fiennes, and he gives an intense performance. What's more, he and Juliette Binoche's Cathy work well as a duo. Some of the viewers who already saw the movie then believe that Heathcliff is Ralph Fiennes' most enchanting performance, which makes Wuthering Heights a must-watch for all fans of the actor.
4 Sunshine (1999)
What makes Ralph Fiennes' role in this movie somewhat ironic is that five years before, he played the Nazi officer Amon Göth in the highly successful Steven Spielberg movie Schindler's List. In Sunshine, Fiennes' character stands on the opposite line, as he's a Jew. The movie chronicles the difficult life of one Hungarian Jewish family in the 20th century. Naturally, World War Two and the persecution of Jews is the biggest deadly challenge they face.
Fiennes excels in the leading role, but the movie has a strong cast overall as it includes names such as Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, and Mark Strong. All fans of Ralph Fiennes shouldn't miss out on watching the movie since Fiennes plays not one, but three different characters in the movie, and he does a memorable job in all three cases. It's important to find a lot of time for Sunshine, though, since the movie runs for three hours!
3 Onegin (1999)
Ralph Fiennes is no stranger to playing literary characters, as everyone who watched his Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series can attest. As Onegin, though, Fiennes is much more civil. The story takes place in Russia in the 1820s and chronicles Onegin's friendship with his new neighbor Lensky (Toby Stephens) as well as his complicated relationship with Tatyana (Liv Tyler) who loves Onegin, but he doesn't return her feelings.
The movie has beautiful costumes, a strong atmosphere of times long gone, and the actors in the leading roles are all excellent. Plus, those unfamiliar with the novel by Alexander Pushkin might very well be surprised by how the story turns out in the end.
2 Beat The Devil (2021)
TV movies never get as much attention as those released on the big screen in movie theaters. That's because there usually isn't enough money to promote them. Ironically, TV movies often offer actors the juiciest roles and sometimes the most demanding ones. Beat the Devil is a good example of that and also an ideal movie for all Ralph Fiennes fans since it functions as a one-man show.
Fiennes manages to pull the movie off even though he's the only actor in the story. He portrays David Hare's struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, and since David Hare directed the movie and wrote the script, it's based on real events. With less than 60 ratings on IMDb, Beat the Devil is one of the least known movies Fiennes has ever done, and that's despite its high rating score.
1 The Dig (2021)
One of Ralph Fiennes' newest movies is streaming on Netflix but still doesn't have as many ratings as his other movies. Quite possibly because it's a historical drama focused on archeology and not everybody is fond of this genre. Ralph Fiennes plays a talented amateur archeologist, Basil Brown, who makes the discovery of a century when Carey Mulligan's Edith Pretty asks him to dig on her property.
Even though Fiennes and Mulligan dominate the movie, it has a solid cast overall and manages to interweave storylines of multiple characters. The atmosphere of The Dig is then made even stronger by the fact that it's based on real events and takes place shortly before World War Two erupted.