Anne Hathaway has spent more than two decades making it difficult to pin her down. She went from storybook royalty to fashion-world assistant, slipped into superhero territory, sang her way to an Oscar, and took on intimate dramas that left little trace of the glossy roles that first made her famous. That willingness to keep changing lanes has turned what could have been a conventional leading-lady career into something far less predictable.
To find which performances have resonated most with audiences, Stacker ranked Anne Hathaway's 10 best movies based on IMDb user ratings as of October 2026. Ties were broken first by the number of IMDb votes and then by Metascore. Only feature films in which Hathaway appeared on screen were considered; voice roles and documentaries were excluded. The resulting lineup travels through very different corners of Hathaway's filmography, with snapshots of a career that has never stayed in one genre.
Focus Features // IMDb
1 / 10#10. One Day (2011)
- Director: Lone Scherfig
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Metascore: 48
- Runtime: 107 minutes
"One Day" checks in on Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew on the same date, July 15, every year for nearly two decades, starting the night after their 1988 university graduation in Edinburgh. Hathaway's Emma is the earnest aspiring writer to Jim Sturgess' charming drifter, and each yearly snapshot tracks a friendship that keeps circling romance. Critics were cool on the adaptation of David Nicholls' bestseller (and on Hathaway's Yorkshire accent), but audiences have stayed fond of its bittersweet slow burn.
20th Century Fox // IMDb
2 / 10#9. The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
- Director: David Frankel
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Metascore: 62
- Runtime: 109 minutes
Andy Sachs begins "The Devil Wears Prada" convinced that working at Runway is merely a temporary detour on her way to serious journalism. Then Miranda Priestly enters the equation. Hathaway charts Andy's transformation from fashion outsider to increasingly savvy insider opposite Meryl Streep, helping turn an assistant-from-hell story into one of the most recognizable films of the 2000s. Two decades later, Hathaway and Streep returned to Runway's offices for "The Devil Wears Prada 2," released in May 2026.
United Artists // IMDb
3 / 10#8. Nicholas Nickleby (2002)
- Director: Douglas McGrath
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: 71
- Runtime: 132 minutes
Hathaway traded Genovia for Victorian England just a year after her breakout. In this adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel, she plays Madeline Bray, a young woman pressed into marrying a miserly old moneylender to settle her father's debts, and the love interest of Charlie Hunnam's Nicholas. It's a supporting part in a crowded ensemble that also includes Christopher Plummer, Jim Broadbent, and Nathan Lane, but it was an early sign that Hathaway could handle period drama.
Warner Bros. // IMDb
4 / 10#7. The Intern (2015)
- Director: Nancy Meyers
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: 51
- Runtime: 121 minutes
Robert De Niro's 70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker signs up for a senior internship program in "The Intern" and lands at About The Fit, the fast-growing online fashion company founded by Hathaway's Jules Ostin. What starts as a reluctant pairing turns into a warm cross-generational friendship, with Ben's old-school steadiness balancing Jules' overstretched (and very modern) workload. It's one of the gentlest comedies on Hathaway's résumé, and a fitting bookend to her days as Miranda Priestly's assistant: this time, she's the boss.
Universal Pictures // IMDb
5 / 10#6. Les Misérables (2012)
- Director: Tom Hooper
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 63
- Runtime: 158 minutes
Fantine doesn't dominate the runtime of "Les Misérables," yet Hathaway made every minute count. Her portrayal follows a struggling factory worker pushed into increasingly desperate circumstances in 19th-century France, culminating in an emotionally charged rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream." The performance brought Hathaway some of the biggest accolades of her career, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Focus Features // IMDb
6 / 10#5. Dark Waters (2019)
- Director: Todd Haynes
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 126 minutes
Mark Ruffalo leads "Dark Waters" as Rob Bilott, the corporate defense attorney who spent years taking on DuPont over toxic chemical contamination in West Virginia. Hathaway plays Sarah Barlage Bilott, his wife (and a lawyer herself), who watches the case consume her family's life. The legal thriller grew out of Nathaniel Rich's 2016 New York Times Magazine article, and it gave Hathaway one of her most grounded adult roles.
Focus Features // IMDb
7 / 10#4. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- Director: Ang Lee
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 134 minutes
Hathaway plays Lureen Newsome, the Texas barrel racer who marries Jake Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist, in "Brokeback Mountain." Ang Lee's adaptation of Annie Proulx's short story follows Jack and Heath Ledger's Ennis Del Mar through a secret love affair that spans two decades, and Lureen's slow drift away from her husband sharpens the film's portrait of lives lived in hiding. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Director for Lee.
Universal Pictures // IMDb
8 / 10#3. The Odyssey (2026)
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Metascore: 88
- Runtime: 172 minutes
Christopher Nolan cast Hathaway for a third time in "The Odyssey," this time as Penelope, the queen of Ithaca, holding off a hall full of suitors while Matt Damon's Odysseus fights his way home from Troy. Her Penelope refuses to give up the throne, then sets the famous test of her husband's bow that brings the story to its reckoning. Nolan's epic became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time barely a month after its July 2026 release.
Warner Bros. // IMDb
9 / 10#2. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Metascore: 78
- Runtime: 164 minutes
Anne Hathaway entered Gotham with one of the trickiest assignments in "The Dark Knight Rises": making Selina Kyle her own after decades of memorable Catwoman portrayals. Her version is sharp, elusive, and never entirely trustworthy, shifting between adversary and ally as Bane brings Gotham to its knees. The film grossed more than $1.1 billion worldwide and stood as Nolan's biggest hit until "The Odyssey."
Paramount Pictures // IMDb
10 / 10#1. Interstellar (2014)
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Metascore: 74
- Runtime: 169 minutes
Hathaway's highest-rated film sends her through a wormhole. In "Interstellar," she plays Dr. Amelia Brand, a NASA scientist joining Matthew McConaughey's Cooper on a desperate search for a habitable planet as Earth's crops fail. Brand's speech about love as something that transcends time and space became one of the film's most debated moments, and Nolan's space epic went on to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
