Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Why So Serious? We know and love Carell from Anchorman and Bruce Almighty, and we've put up with him in middle-of-the-road filler like Date Night, but the US Office actor has also convincingly honed a sombre side.

Take Little Miss Sunshine for example. Carell throws off the comedy shackles and tests his character work to the full in a role that requires him to play it gay, depressed, bearded and scholarly, in the midst of a family of indie royalty.

The role was originally offered to fellow funnymen-going-straight Bill Murray and Robin Williams, but Carell made it into one of his early career highlights.

If they played it for laughs... Carell's at his funniest when playing it zany (Brick Tamland in Anchorman is surely his comedic zenith) so his character's dysfunction would have to be verbal diarrhoea. He'd have the tightly-wound family in stitches before they even got in the campervan.

See also: Dan in Real Life