Some acting I really liked

Our big Best of ‘07 stories run Sunday, but because I’m such a smug gasbag there wasn’t enough room to bloviate about the acting I loved this year. And there was a lot to love - so much, apparently, that I actually forgot a few (thanks, Mark Feeney). Some of the parts were tiny in movies nobody saw. Some of them everybody did. Even if the film didn’t really work, the actor really did. And the distinction between a lead role and supporting one seems arbitrary to me. I know the difference when I see it. But it’s really a combination of a character’s narrative function and whatever the actor brings to the part. Javier Bardem, for instance, probably has less screen time in "No Country for Old Men" than Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones, but, to my mind, his character fuels the chase. Plus, he’s just so good – not to mention, with that haircut, so ready to paint my bathroom.

Big Parts
Amy Adams in “Enchanted”
Norma Aleandro and Norma Argentina in “Live-in Maid”
Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Tommy Lee Jones in “No Country for Old Men”
Juliet Binoche in “Breaking and Entering”
Dan Castellaneta for "The Simpsons Movie"
Michael Cera in "Superbad"
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose”
Matt Damon in “The Bourne Ultimatum”
Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”
Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd”
Anna Faris in “Smiley Face”
Richard Gere in “The Hoax”
Greta Gerwig in “Hannah Takes the Stairs”
Ryan Gosling in “Lars and the Real Girl”
Jake Gyllenhaal in “Zodiac”
Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”
Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci in “Black Snake Moan”
Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah”
Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon in “Bug”
Song Kang-ho in “The Host”
Nina Kervel-Bey in “Blame it on Fidel”
Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Savages”
Anamaria Marinca in “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”
Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts in “Eastern Promises”
Joaquin Phoenix in “We Own the Night”
John C. Reilly in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”
Molly Shannon in “Year of the Dog”
Will Smith in “I Am Legend”
Amber Tamblyn in “Stephanie Daley”
Luisa Williams in “Day Night Day Night”
Slavoj Zizek in “The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema”

Smaller Parts
Casey Affleck and Paul Schneider in the “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
Ko Ah-sung, Byeon Hie-bong, Park Hae-il, and Bae Du-na in “The Host”
David Banner in "Black Snake Moan"
Zoe Bell, Tracie Thoms, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, and Kurt Russell in “Death Proof”
Patricia Clarkson in “Lars and the Real Girl”
Matt Damon in “Ocean’s Thirteen”
Paul Dano and Dillon Freasier in “There Will Be Blood”
Ben Foster in “Alpha Dog” and “3:10 to Yuma”
Taraji P. Henson, Martin Sheen, and Vondie Curtis-Hall in “Talk to Me”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War”
Kene Holliday in “Great World of Sound”
Vlad Ivanov and Laura Vasiliu in “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”
Anna Kendrick in “Rocket Science”
Kelly MacDonald, Woody Harrelson, and Garret Dillahunt in “No Country for Old Men”
Leslie Mann in “Knocked Up”
James Marsden in “Enchanted”
Margo Martindale in “Paris Je T’aime”
Christopher Mintz-Plasse in “Superbad”
Alfred Molina in “The Hoax”
Yigal Naor and Meryl Streep in “Rendition”
Paula Newsome in “Reign Over Me”
Michelle Pfeiffer in “Hairspray”
Aurora Quattrocchi in “Golden Door”
Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Brian Cox, and John Carroll Lynch in”Zodiac”
Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone”
Peter Sarsgaard in “Year of the Dog”
Jurnee Smollett in “The Great Debaters”
Barbara Sukowa and Kate Winslet in “Romance & Cigarettes”
Marisa Tomei in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”
Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton”
Robin Wright Penn in “Breaking and Entering”

http://www.boston.com/movies/display?display=movie&id=9935