It was a great year for movies. It was an even better year for acting.

Some great performances that James didn't mention that IMO is worth mentioning:

Pierce Brosnan and Olivia Williams in The Ghost Writer

Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell in Conviction

Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in Fair Game

Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs

Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig and Rhys Ifans in Greenberg

George Clooney in The American

Andrew Garfield in The Social Network

Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley in Never Let Me Go

Diane Weist and Aaron Ekchart in Rabbit Hole (these two deserve just as much recognition as Kidman)

Amy Adams in The Fighter

Barbara Hershey and Vincent Cassel in Black Swan

Leonardo Dicaprio in Shutter Island


I could go on. This was a great year for movies and for acting if you ask me.

BTW, there is a typo in your article. It's Rooney Mara who will be in the new Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Not Kate.

You said that James Franco isn't a great actor. If you haven't seen Freaks and Geeks, I can understand that. He was great in that show, in particular the episode Tests and Breasts.

Also,

Unless Rescue Dawn was filmed before Batman Begins, which I don't think it was. Anyway, he seems to have a kind of disturbing love for really wrecking his body for a role. But, man, it works.

Bale was excellent in The Machinist. He lost a LOT of weight there too.

I noticed that Sally Hawkins isn't on this list for Made in Dagenham even though you remarked in your review of the film that she gave "[one of] the five best lead actress performances of the year." Not big deal, I'm just curious.

Speaking of Bale, I was re-watching Batman Begins on FX the other day and I was reminded once again what an excellent film that is. In the wake of The Dark Knight, it was so easy to forget all about the first film in the series reboot but watching it again made me realize how important it was in reestablishing the characters and the mythos of Batman and how it laid the foundation for the next film. It could be argued that The Dark Knight wouldn't have had anywhere near the impact that it did without the groundwork laid by Begins.

I agree with Firth's inclusion but Carter's work, while very strong, doesn't quite stand out as literally one of the five best of the year. I think that Noomi Rapace gives the best performance, male or female, in the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Yeah, Bale goes up and down. 165 for American Psycho down to 120 for the Machinist, back up to 185 (actually 200+ at first) for Batman, down again for Rescue Dawn, up again for Dark Knight, down for The Fighter, yadda yadda. He's nuts.

He is probably going to die young, or at least wreck his knees from the excessive running he does to lose the weight.

I would agree with this sentiment. I like to watch Begins from time to time because the way it goes about developing its characters is really... I guess friendly? It's the kind of movie I want to cuddle with, you know?

Also, sheryl posted. I am reminded of when Patrick said that a post from her nowadays is akin to seeing a unicorn.

To Sheryl:
And if Bale didn't lose all that weight for The Machinist, nobody would care since it was a pretty average movie.

To Oaf:
A double feature of Begins and Knight....you have inspired me to undertake this feat.

To Pedro:
You remember where I said that, I know I did but I forgot where.

I wonder what James would pick as the WORST performances of the year. I think I can guess a couple:

Christina Aguilera - Burlesque
The cast of "Skyline"
Robert De Niro - Little Fockers
Jack Nicholson - How Do You Know

I should probably have said one of the *seven* best performances of the year. My original list had seven men and seven women. The "missing" man who got cut was Jeff Bridges. The woman was Sally Hawkins. The cut was not a reflection of either performance but because I wanted to reduce the size of the column.

James

Really great list and so happy to see Buried and Nicole Kidman get some love.

However, I am a big fan of Kevin Spacey, but found his performance in Casino Jack to be mannered and way over the top. if you're on full throttle in every scene there is no nuance.

Rob

lol.

Leonardo DiCaprio has gotten completely overlooked for his role in Shutter Island.

Is Sheryl back?
Happy new year to you
Rob

Roony Mara WILL be a pale imitation of Rapace. Fincher is getting shit loads of undeserved praise for The Social Network but what he plans to do will simply show up his admirers as fanboys, nothing more.

I was under the impression that Kevin Spacey had semi-retired from movies, which might explain his lack of enthusiasm!

This strikes me as totally unnecessary and even a little assholey.