Oscar Week: Best Actress

Next up is Best Actress, and like before, there are possible character and/or movie spoilers below.

Penelope Cruz, Volver

Raimunda (Cruz) and her daughter, Paula, have a death to cope with. Paula has stabbed her father, Paco, when he attempted to force himself upon her, telling Paula that he “is not her father”. Lying dead and bloody on the kitchen floor, Paco’s corpse is cleaned and wrapped in a blanket, which Raimunda and Paula drag to a nearby -- and fortunately unused -- restaurant. Raimunda, who has been entrusted with the keys to the establishment in order to help the owner lease it, hides the body in the restaurant’s deep freeze. This leads to her meeting someone from a film crew seeking a place to feed his crew of thirty people. Raimunda strikes a deal to cater for the crew, and finds herself suddenly in the restaurant business. Paula later finds out that Paco was not her father at all and that her real father was her grandfather who sexually abused Raimunda (man, bummer). Issues get worked out and stuff. Hilarity ensues.

Judi Dench, Notes On A Scandal

Barbara Covett (Dench) is a history teacher residing in Britain. A lonely old spinster, Barbara has a negative life viewpoint and is unpopular among her students and colleagues. At the start of the school year, a new teacher, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), begins to teach pottery at the school. When two students get into a fight, Barbara helps Sheba deal with the situation and begins something of a friendship with her. Barbara learns of Sheba's family, including her much older husband and two children, one of whom has Down's Syndrome. Sheba admits that she is unhappy with her life and had planned it differently. hey agree to meet at the upcoming school concert, but Sheba is absent. Barbara goes looking for her and witnesses her having sexual intercourse with fifteen year-old Steven Connelly (Simpson). Barbara is disgusted and confronts Sheba at a local pub. Sheba explains that she has been teaching Steven after school for quite some time and that she fell in love with him after learning that his father is abusive and that his mother is dying from kidney failure. Barbara agrees not to inform the police if Sheba ends the affair. A few days later, Barbara's cat dies and she asks Sheba to help bury her. Sheba, however, has to go to her son's play and is unable to help, despite Barbara's reminder that she didn't inform the police earlier. A teary-eyed and furious Barbara buries her cat alone, and later that night, she hints to one of her colleagues that Sheba is having an affair with Steven. He informs Steven's mother, who storms into Sheba's home and attacks her. Hilarity ensues.

Helen Mirren, The Queen

While the Queen (Mirren) and the Royal Family are on holiday at Balmoral Castle, the Queen's Scottish estate in Aberdeenshire, Diana, Princess of Wales is killed in a car accident while visiting Paris with her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed. Britons erupt in an intense state of grief, as millions come to Buckingham Palace to place floral tributes along the fence. Blair makes a public statement, written by his director of communications, Alastair Campbell, in which he describes Diana as 'the People's Princess'. The phrase catches on immediately. Diana's death sparks mixed feelings among senior members of the Royal Family. Diana had not been much beloved by them while she was alive. The Queen observes that, since Diana divorced her son, the Prince of Wales, a year before, Diana is no longer a member of the Royal Family. Consequently, as she insists to Blair, the funeral arrangements are a "private matter" to be left to the late princess's own family. After initially hesitating, though, she accedes to Prince Charles' request for his use of an aircraft of the Queen's Flight to fly to Paris and bring Diana's body back to Britain. Charles ensures that Diana's coffin is draped with a royal standard instead of being a "plain wooden box." Hilarity ensues.

Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

Editor Miranda Priestly (Streep) dominates the fashion world from her perch atop Runway magazine. She seems to delight in abusing her staff who are deftly afraid of her. But Miranda’s life is not as good as it seems. And to top it off there is an internal power play and Miranda might find herself on the outside looking in. Hilarity ensues.

Kate Winslet, Little Children

Sarah Pierce is a former campus feminist who is now a reluctant homemaker and mother in the suburbs. She made a conscious decision to stay home with her three-year-old daughter, Lucy. However, it is suggested throughout the film that Sarah feels stifled and aimless in her role as a mother, viewing her young daughter as an alien creature, even a nuisance. Sarah pulls away visibly from Lucy, mildly panicking at the sign of any affection from the young girl. She is especially not fond of the tedious and judgmental Stepford-like mothers she encounters on a daily basis at the local playgrounds. She also walks in on her husband with a pair of panties over his face. The panties belong to a woman who posts sexy pictures of herself on a website, with whom her husband has become obsessed. Sarah is disgusted. She soon begins an affair with Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), a former college football player who is married to Kathy Adamson (Jennifer Connelly), a documentary film maker who works for PBS. Hilarity ensues.