Filmography
| Year | Title | Role |
| 2022 | Sell/Buy/Date (2022) | Executive Producer |
| 2021 | Don't Look Up (2021) | President Orlean |
| 2020 | The Prom (2020) | Dee Dee Allen |
| 2019 | Little Women (2019) | Aunt March |
| 2019 | The Laundromat (2019) | Ellen Martin |
| 2018 | Mary Poppins Returns (2018) | Topsy |
| 2018 | Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again | Donna |
| 2018 | This Changes Everything (2019) | Self |
| 2017 | The Post (2017) | Katharine Graham |
| 2016 | Florence Foster Jenkins | Florence Foster Jenkins |
| 2016 | Everybody Knows... Elizabeth Murray | Self |
| 2015 | Ricki and the Flash | Ricki Rendazzo |
| 2015 | Suffragette | Emmeline Pankhurst |
| 2015 | Shout Gladi Gladi | Narrator |
| 2015 | Everything Is Copy | Actor |
| 2014 | Into the Woods | The Witch |
| 2014 | The Giver | Chief Elder |
| 2014 | The Homesman | Altha Carter |
| 2013 | Girl Rising | Narrator |
| 2013 | August: Osage County | Violet Weston |
| 2012 | Hope Springs | Kay |
| 2012 | To the Arctic | Narrator |
| 2012 | A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle For A Living Planet | Narrator |
| 2011 | Naked Beauty: A Love Story that Feeds the Earth | Narrator |
| 2011 | The Iron Lady | Margaret Thatcher |
| 2010 | Higglety Pigglety Pop! | Jennie |
| 2009 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Mrs. Fox |
| 2009 | Julie & Julia | Julia Child |
| 2009 | It's Complicated | Jane |
| 2008 | Mamma Mia! (2008) | Donna |
| 2008 | Doubt | Sister Aloysius |
| 2008 | Theater of War | Actor |
| 2007 | Dark Matter | Joanna Silver |
| 2007 | Evening | Lila Wittenborn |
| 2007 | Rendition | Corrine Whitman |
| 2007 | Lions for Lambs | Janine Roth |
| 2006 | The Devil Wears Prada | Miranda Priestly |
| 2006 | A Prairie Home Companion | Yolanda Johnson |
| 2006 | The Ant Bully | Queen Ant |
| 2005 | Prime | Lisa Metzger |
| 2004 | Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events | Aunt Josephine |
| 2004 | Monet's Palate | Narrator |
| 2004 | Victory: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE | Eleanor Prentiss Shaw |
| 2003 | Angels in America | Ethel Rosenberg |
| 2002 | The Hours | Clarissa Vaughan |
| 2002 | Adaptation | Susan Orlean |
| 2001 | Vermeer: Master of Light | Narrator |
| 1999 | Music of the Heart | Roberta Guaspari |
| 1998 | Dancing at Lughnasa | Kate 'Kit' Mundy |
| 1998 | One True Thing | Kate Gulden |
| 1996 | Marvin's Room | Lee |
| 1996 | Before and After | Dr. Carolyn Ryan |
| 1995 | The Living Sea | Narrator |
| 1995 | The Bridges of Madison County | Francesca Johnson |
| 1994 | The River Wild (2023) | Gail Hartman |
| 1993 | The House of the Spirits | Clara del Valle Trueba |
| 1992 | Death Becomes Her | Madeline Ashton |
| 1991 | Defending Your Life | Julia |
| 1990 | Postcards From the Edge | Suzanne Vale |
| 1989 | She-Devil | Mary Fisher |
| 1988 | A Cry In The Dark | Lindy Chamberlain |
| 1987 | Ironweed | Helen Archer |
| 1986 | Heartburn | Rachel Samstat |
| 1985 | Out of Africa | Karen Christence Dinesen Blixen-Finecke |
| 1985 | Plenty | Susan Traherne |
| 1983 | Silkwood | Karen Silkwood |
| 1982 | Sophie's Choice | Sophie |
| 1982 | Still of the Night | Brooke Reynolds |
| 1981 | The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) | Sarah/Anna |
| 1979 | Kramer vs. Kramer | Joanna Kramer |
| 1979 | UNUSED Manhattan (1979) | Jill |
| 1979 | The Seduction of Joe Tynan | Karen Traynor |
| 1978 | The Deer Hunter | Linda |
| 1977 | Julia (1977) | Anne Marie |
