The Only Anthony Hopkins Movie That Has A Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score

At a time when Hollywood's long-term survival is in question and directors like Joe Russo are welcoming the arrival of an AI-driven garbage future with open arms, it might seem as though Rotten Tomatoes rankings are the least of our concerns. Quite honestly, they are. Whether a film receives the coveted "Fresh" rating or the dreaded splat really isn't all that consequential in the grand scheme of things. But for whatever reason, the Tomatometer still holds sway over our collective movie tastes, and now that movies' RT scores are baked into many of our favorite streaming services' interfaces, it's harder than ever to avoid the all-powerful review aggregator.

It's fair to say, then, that Rotten Tomatoes is doing alright for itself, which in turn means it's probably okay to point out some of its shortcomings. As such, let me point your attention towards Rotten Tomatoes' contention that there are only two perfect Alfred Hitchcock films and neither of them are "Vertigo," "Psycho," "The Birds," or "North By Northwest." "Ah, surely 'Rear Window,' then?" I hear you ask. Nope. It's 1937's "Young and Innocent" and 1943's "Shadow of a Doubt." Not all that egregious, I suppose, but how about the idea that Sean Connery's best film is "Darby O'Gill and the Little People?" Ah, now I've got your attention...

In fairness, it's not technically true to say that Rotten Tomatoes has claimed any of the above. The site simply allows you to look up a particular actor or director and see how all their various RT scores stack up. Often this makes for some amusing little oddities, such as the fact that Tim Burton's highest-rated film on RT isn't even one he directed. Or how about the fact that the great Anthony Hopkins has apparently only made one perfect movie?

So, what's Anthony Hopkins' best film then? The man has led some genuine classics in his time, so there's no shortage of possibilities. "The Remains of the Day" or "Silence of the Lambs," perhaps? No, in Rotten Tomatoes' ranking of the esteemed actor's filmography, you'll see that one film comes out on top with a rare 100% score. That film is, of course, "The Dresser."

Never heard of it? Well, that's not down to any lack of quality, as the film's "perfect" score suggests. Rather, it's because "The Dresser" is a drama that was specifically produced for British network BBC Two back in 2015. In other words, this was a TV movie, but not in the pejorative American sense of a film that wasn't quite good enough for the box office. In fact, being a Brit myself, I can tell you all with confidence that a premium BBC Two drama is about as prestigious as TV movies get.

Of course, with a 100% score, you can probably already tell that "The Dresser" is not one to be overlooked when it comes to Hopkins' impressive oeuvre. Based on the 1980 play of the same name by Ronald Harwood, the film follows an aging Shakesperian actor known as Sir (Hopkins), whose glory days are long behind him. The head of a touring Shakespearean troupe, Sir begins behaving erratically as the company is preparing to put on a performance of "King Lear" during the Blitz. The film focuses on the relationship between Sir and his theatrical dresser, Norman, played by the equally esteemed Ian McKellen. This 2015 version is actually the second movie adaptation following 1983's Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay-starring effort. Interestingly enough, that original adaptation also managed a 100% RT score.

It's worth noting that both the 1983 and 2015 versions of "The Dresser" have less than 20 reviews each on Rotten Tomatoes, with the former's score made up of 16 reviews and the latter's made up of 14. Often, these films with the least amount of reviews tend to be the ones that manage to attain the elusive "perfect" RT score or, in some cases, the dreaded 0%. The aforementioned 1937 Alfred Hitchcock film "Young and Innocent," for example, had only 20 reviews, which seems to have helped it reach its 100% rating.

Sadly, the same can't be said for the full seven worst John Travolta movies, several of which had plenty of reviews and still somehow managed to maintain a 0% score. Still, on the whole, the fewer reviews RT aggregates, the more chance there seems to be of a movie achieving a 0 or 100% score. It's the same principle as when a film debuts to stellar reviews, but in time the RT score drops as more and more critiques roll in.

In the case of Anthony Hopkins, the two-time Oscar winner has enjoyed a decades-long career marked by some of the finest on-screen performances yet seen. But if we're going by the Rotten Tomatoes rankings, "Thor: Ragnarok" is his seventh-best film, so you should have a sense of how seriously to take this whole thing. Still, on the plus side, at least you know about "The Dresser" now, which it seems really is worth your time.