Richard Attenborough directs this sweeping biopic of the silent-film genius Charlie Chaplin, tracing his rise from London poverty to Hollywood immortality and Cold War exile. Robert Downey Jr. gives a remarkable, physically uncanny performance that earned him his first Oscar nomination. Handsome but conventional in its cradle-to-grave structure, the film was warmly received chiefly for Downey's transformative turn, which remains its lasting achievement.