Best Actress Nominees

Next up is the Best Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role Nominees. And remember, I am going to present them in the order they are listed on IMDb.com.

Anne Hathaway plays Kym in Rachel Getting Married. Kym has just left rehab to attend her sister's wedding. She still has issues, mainly with her family in an over protective father and a sister who doesn't seem to want her there. She struggles with the fact that she is not the center of attention that she is used to being. Hathaway does a good job showing the struggles this young woman is facing. Hathaway has so far been known mainly for comedy work and lighter roles. If she keeps picking these kind of roles she will be nominated again.

Angelina Jolie plays Christine Collins in Changeling. Christine Collins is the mother of a lost child. The police will not help her, instead returning a child that is not hers. She feels she has to do something to force the police to look for her boy, but it ends up sending her to a mental institution. Jolie is a good actress but I am not sure this role will win it her her. She doesn't seem to show enough emotion. Maybe it is because she is trying to stay calm and find her son, I don't know, it was just a meh performance to me.

Melissa Leo plays Ray Eddy in Frozen River. Ray Eddy is a mother struggling to make ends meet for her two sons. Her husband has just run out on her and taken the payment for the trailer now she has to figure out a way to get the money before Christmas. Her solution: helping illegal aliens cross the river into America. Melissa Leo is a wild card in this years nominations. I don't know her work very well but it looks like it consists mostly of character parts. In this movie she does a decent job and probably deserves a mention but that's about it.

Meryl Streep plays Sister Aloysius Beauvier in Doubt. Sister Aloysius is the head nun at a school in New York. She directs her nuns to watch out for anything suspicious that happens. Sister James finds it in the form of Father Flynn and a young boy. Sister Aloysius takes it upon herself, without any proof whatsoever, to run Father Flynn out of the school and the church. As I said in the review of Doubt, I think Streep got the nomination purely on reputation. Yes, she does a good job, a very good, but she just doesn't seem to put out her best performance here. It is just not vintage Streep.

Kate Winslet play Hanna Schmitz in The Reader. Hanna Schmitz is a woman who works on a cable car. She helps a young man who is feeling sick get home. He comes back to thank her and the have an affair over the summer. Latter it is revealed that during the war she was a Nazi concentration camp guard and she is put on trial. Winslet is making her sixth appearance as an Oscar nominee, but she hasn't won yet. I say yet because she will win an Oscar in her career which hopefully is a long one. She will probably win multiple Oscars. I think she will get the first one this year. Out of the five nominees, her performance stands out. She is distant at times but so would Schmitz be if she was hiding the fact that she was a nazi guard. She just does the best job this year.

Tune in tomorrow for Best Actor.