My 10 Favourite performances of 2011.

The only year of my backlog left to go. The force of playing favourites in this list is strong!

 10. Jennifer Aniston, Horrible Bosses

A nympho boss from hell, but Aniston's clearly had  blast taking on the role and the fun of that made for a very fun performance. And I never thought I'd see Rachel from Friends say such filthy things!

09. Jessica Chastain, The Help

I also loved Jess in Tree of Life which came out the same year, but as that's my second most despised movie ever after American Hustle, I listed her for this. Jess (I call her that because I like to pretend to myself that I'm BFFs with her) is a freaking chameleon!

08. Saoirse Ronan, Hanna

Obligatory mention of the best young actress around, whom I've been a loyal fan ever since I watched her as meddling Briony in Atonement. Here, she teams up with Atonement's director again to give a chilling portrayal of a girl who's been trained to be an assassin from birth. 

(Pointless trivia that only I find interesting: the director in question, Joe Wright, was engaged to Rosamund Pike (who he met on the set of Pride and Prejudice, where she played Keira Knightley's nice sister Jane, until Joe dicked her about. From interviews, Rosamund appears to have taken this in her stride and gotten on with her life. I'm disappointed she didn't Gone Girl him tbh)

07. Jonah Hill, Moneyball

As the shy Yale-educated economist who introduces Brad Pitt to the statistics behind baseball, Jonah Hill won plaudits from film critics, his first Oscar nomination, but most importantly for him, I'm sure, I started taking him seriously as an actor. In Moneyball, Jonah leaves behind his usual drunken frat-boy persona to inhibit an altogether more soft-spoken presence,  a subtle screen presence that lets Brad Pitt do all the heavy lifting.

06. Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids

A brilliantly cringe performance in a brilliantly cringe film. Line-readings on point, especially when she puts the awful customer in the shop in her place.

05. Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

A bold, audacious performance of great confidence and exuberance. In the photo above, she's seducing her real-life husband. Who doesn't want it. Melissa and Kristen's sick comic timing is ensured 2016's Ghostbusters was anything but a flop in my eyes!

04. Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Mary May Marlene

I never knew what her character was thinking. After everything that Martha went through, I think that's apropos. 

03. Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Fierce A F. Following in Noomi Rapace's footsteps was a formidable challenge, but my Queen more than rose to the task. Her commitment to her role, and the element of relish and bite in that revenge scene is some of Rooney's finest acting. 

02. Viola Davis, The Help

Every piece of acting Viola touches turns to gold (she did a lot with underwritten characters in both Suicide Squad and Ender's Game). But in The Help she's given a role and a script where she can flaunt the true extent of her acting talent, and brings us a woman who's outwardly strong and maternal, inwardly vulnerable. She's the emotional core of The Help, and completely breaks your heart.

Trivia: Viola and Jessica, both on this list for The Help, both attended Juilliard Drama School. And both are astonishingly good actresses. Stay in school, kids!

01. Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

... speaking of heartbreaking, for me, one of the most pathos-injected performances of all time is Alan Rickman as Professor Snape in the final Harry Potter film. Whilst the casting of the Harry Potter series has, shall we say, been variable in quality (Emma Watson seems to think wiggling her eyebrows earnestly equates to acting. Bye Felicia), Rickman was everything I imagined as Snape and more. Snape's stony face hid years of bottled-up love for a girl he still feels guilt for his part in losing. 

The finest part of J.K. Rowling's saga was this Big Reveal, and in conveying how much the secret meant to him, Rickman has crafted one of the most memorable Byronic heroes. R.I.P. to a great talent.

The shot above is a scene that still lingers in my memory.

Stats and Shiz, because it's not like that's what my PhD is in or anything
Gender
Men: 2 (haha)
Women: 8
... but this is the first time (going backwards from 2015) I've listed a fella in the prestigious top spot.

Playing favourites (previous appearances)

Jessica Chastain: 6th in 2011 (Zero Dark Thirty), 10th in 2014 (A Most Violent Year)

Jonah Hill: 7th in 2012: (21 Jump Street), 9th in 2013 (Wolf of Wall Street), third in 2014 (22 Jump Street). 

This makes Jonah Hill the only actor to be in my 10 favourite performances of the year four years in a row. Dunno if you can tell but... I'm a fan.

Rooney Mara: 6th in 2013 (Side Effects), 2nd in 2015 (Carol)

Melissa McCarthy: 8th in 2013 (The Heat, from the same director as her entry in this year's list)

Saoirse Ronan: 7th in 2009 (The Lovely Bones), first in 2015 (Brooklyn)

^^^ this may give you an indication of who my favourite actors might be

And of course.... by BBFC rating (gives you a rough indication of grittiness of the film from which the performance came)

12A: 5

15: 4

18: 1 (the 18 in question being The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And boy did it earn that 18 certificate!) #RevengeRape

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 (David Yates, 2011)

A wise English proverb once dictated that all good things must come to an end. Ten years on from the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the eighth and final Harry Potter film is released. The producers at Warner Brothers made the money-savvy choice of splitting Deathly Hallows into two films, which led to a sort of Kill Bill effect – one film was all highs, the other all lows. However, they did it the right way round, with the first instalment of Deathly Hallows boring people to near-death. What that meant, of course, was that all the rollercoaster of visual pyrotechnics, character relationships and the final countdown between Harry and Voldemort was saved for the second film. And what a finale it is.

It would be optimistic to say that the three leads have particularly bettered over the ten years. Daniel Radcliffe still strikes me as awful impassive, spending much of the film looking baffled or bemused. When he is required to give a performance of emotional gravitas, he borders on overacting. However, if he is on the cusp of ham, Emma Watson is a fully-fledged bacon, once again letting her eyebrows do the acting, acting. Of the three, Rupert Grint has always been the one who charmed me the most, and as with previous films, he has some real zingers, which he delivers with relish. I met him, in case you forgot.

But looking past the lead three, the performances are an unequivocal joy. Michael Gambon is perhaps a little more taciturn than I had pictured Dumbledore to be, but what he lacks in words he exudes mystery and wisdom. Helena Bonham Carter, though underused, goes to town with her performance, making the demented psycho bitch Bellatrix Lestrange totally her role. Tom Felton, although not given as much of a chance to shine as he was in Half-Blood Prince, pulls off the unenviable task of humanizing Draco – a character we are expected to despise. Bonnie Wright is so impassive that she must have been taking acting lessons from the tree from which her on-screen wand was made from, but Evanna Lynch is delightfully kooky and Matt Lewis – who, it must be said – has aged quite nicely, really comes into his own as Neville Longbottom gets his moment of glory. Maggie Smith is wonderful, shedding all her airs and graces of Downturn Abbey to exhibit the true grit of Minerva McGonagall, and Julie Walters’ delivery of “NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH” has pipped Bridesmaids’ “you’re a little cunt” as my favourite line-containing-a-misogynistic-expletitive-of-2011.

But the finest performance of the film, and possibly the best performance in the entire Harry Potter franchise, belongs to Alan Rickman. Professor Snape has always been a hard character to sympathise with and many felt Dumbledore’s trust in him was idiotically misplaced, not least at the end of Half-Blood Prince. But as JK Rowling’s novel exhibited, years of hidden love, disappointment and jealousy boil together to give one of the emotionally cathartic performances I’ve seen. Behind that impassive face hid so many emotions, and Rickman lets these all come to the fore in an acting tour-de-force that exhibits more layers than an onion. The scene where Snape discovers Lily Potter’s dead body, such was the force of Rickman’s performance, that I was literally bawling. Beautiful work, and if there was any justice in the world, he ought to be a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor come Academy Awards 2011.

The showdown in the form of the Battle of Hogwarts is a long affair, but sandwich in between it are pithy one-liners, some excellent CGI, and wonderfully rewarding kisses. Although I’m anything but a fan of Emma Watson, the Hermione/Ron kiss completely melted my heart, as well as the Neville Longbottom & Luna Lovegood romance, how adorable! Alexandre Desplat’s silky score is some of the most grand work he’s done and aptly captures the magnitude of the moment; “Lily’s Theme” is one of his most stunning tracks. Eduardo Serra captures the contrasts between bleakness and redemption gorgeously, and there are some beautiful symbols that have emerged from the film - Hagrid carrying Harry whilst crying for him was one that particularly lingered in my mind.

The epilogue in the film, as expected giving how much I groaned when I read it first time round, is a cringe-worthy affair, but giving Ron a pot belly was comedy gold. There are parts in the film that feel somewhat forced and heavy-handed, but other parts turned out just as I had expected, if not better, having read them in the film – Harry reading through Snape’s memories was a terrific montage of love, loss and regret.

It feels like a huge slice of my childhood has ebbed away with the Harry Potter franchise ending. Along the way, we have had comedy, drama, awful acting, wonderful acting, Hedwig’s Theme – one of the most recognisable tunes in film music, and magic aplenty. It has been a rollercoaster ride, but on the whole, I would say Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 is a worthy bow out to a truly innovative and exciting series of books. Mischief managed!