2011 year in review: top female actors

Now arrives the time to recapitulate the most memorable performances from 2011, both from the female and male actors. As stimulating as it can be to write these two lists, it always hurts upon realizing how much more difficult it is to recount the great female performances of the year. Either women still do not receive the same amount of solid roles as men or I'm just not going to see the right movies to make a more informed judgement call. Regardless, let us begin with the women:

5-Rooney Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

A tricky pick given our collective propensity to criticize actors who put on accents to further make their characters more 'authentic', but not only is Mara's passable, she completely inhabits Lisbeth Salander, doing just enough tinkering to create her own version of the character.

4-Amy Seimetz in A Horrible Way to Die

Super dramatic performance number 1 of the countdown. Amy Seimetz is given a pretty low life type of chatacter in A Horrible Way to Die, playing a recovering alcoholic trying to reconnect with the world. She is more than up to the task of making us want to do the right thing, even if it kills her, literally.

3-Elle Fanning in Super 8

Arguably the biggest surprise of the year as far as mainstream cinema is concerned. The entire cast of the film is very, very good, and yet Fanning floors everybody nonetheless. Charming, touching, smart emotionally rich, Fanning's performance is one people will remember for a long time to come.

2-Jennifer Ehle in Contagion

Interesting that the best performance in an all star cast comes from the one actor most people were unfamiliar with. There is something to be said when the most complete performance comes from someone other than Matt Damon, Marian Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.

1-Hatice Haslan in Vucut

Haslan gave a stunningly gripping performance, playing a broken down ageing porn star who must wrestle with a new found connection she has in a young, rambunctious teenage boy. The power and fragility of this fifty-something used and abused woman is amazing to behold.

Honourable mentions: 

Geneviève Rioux in La Vérité

Carey Mulligan in Shame

Saoirse Ronan in Hanna

Juliette Binoche in Copie conforme/Certified Copy

Jenira Pongpas in Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives