She received a Golden Globe award for her role in The Big C.
Linney appeared in minor roles in a few early 1990s films, including Dave in 1993, before coming to prominence in the public television mini-series Tales of the City. She was then cast in a series of high-profile thrillers, including Congo, Primal Fear and Absolute Power. She made her Hollywood breakthrough in 1998, playing Jim Carrey's on-screen wife in The Truman Show, for which she received critical acclaim.
In 2000, Linney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the lower-budget film You Can Count on Me. The same year, she also appeared in the role of an artist's model in the low-budget, critically praised film Maze with Rob Morrow. In 2003, Linney appeared in several notable films, including Mystic River, Love Actually and The Life of David Gale. Her 2004 performance in Kinsey, as the title character's wife, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2005, Linney starred in horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the comedy-drama The Squid and the Whale; for the latter role, she received a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy". In 2006, Linney appeared in the political satire Man of the Year, the comedy Driving Lessons (starring Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame), and the Australian drama Jindabyne by Ray Lawrence. Jindabyne was based on Raymond Carver's short novel So Much Water so Close to Home.
In 2007, Linney appeared in the spy thriller Breach, The Nanny Diaries, opposite Scarlett Johansson and based on the book by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, and The Savages, where Linney starred with Philip Seymour Hoffman. She received her third Academy Award nomination for this film - this time as Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 2008, Linney starred in The Other Man, with Antonio Banderas and Liam Neeson, the latter whom she had starred with in Kinsey and Love Actually.
