I don't think we'll remember 2011 as a banner year for film, although there have been some great ones. But I do think there are a couple actors who proved they have versatility and talent to be huge stars in the years to come.
I first took notice of
Jessica Chastain in "The Debt," a spy movie in which she plays an Israeli agent working to capture a former Nazi doctor who escaped justice. Hers was an emotionally taut performance, coming face to face with pure evil, and having that wickedness get to know her all too well.
I then saw her in Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life," a meditation on our relationship with the divine and our whispered prayers. It's a complex and even cluttered film, but I just can't get it out of my head. And with all it has going on, Chastain is the heart and soul of it, delivering a mostly silent performance as a mother cowed by a domineering husband (Brad Pitt), who can only be herself when he's gone.
She was also a stand-out in "The Help," which is a movie filled with wonderful performances all the way around. Something about her white-trash Celia Foote, who married rich and out of her depth, just felt honest and pure to me. In a film dominated by racial motivations, this is a character who is truly post-racial, and Chastain captures that beautiful innocence.
I can't wait to see what she does next.
Michael Fassbender is hardly a newcomer. He's been in the business for years, but 2011 made it feel like he'd finally really arrived. Like many, I first took notice of the German actor in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" in 2009. Apparently, a lot of people did.
He had four major releases in 2011. It started with his note-perfect read on Rochester in "Jane Eyre," which made a dusty classic feel fresh again.
I positively loved his work as a young Magneto in "X-Men: First Class." His character is driven by rage and revenge, and Fassbender taps into that with a charismatic zeal that would be hard to match.
I have yet to see his work as Carl Jung in David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method," opposite Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley, but he's received solid reviews. There's no release date set for it's arrival in Lubbock, and unfortunately local theater goers won't get to see the best work by him or
any actor this year in "Shame." In the NC-17-rated movie, he plays a self-destructive sex addict in a performance that is brave, magnetic, and heart-breaking.
Fassbender and Chastain both had remarkable years. Watch them - they're about to soar.
