The Best Actresses of 2009

Roger Ebert compares British actress Carey Mulligan to a young Audrey Hepburn, a real compliment to this fresh-faced actress who's never headlined a movie before. Mulligan is brilliant in her first major starring role, playing a 16 year old schoolgirl who's seduced by a much older, more worldly, wealthy businessman (Peter Sarsgaard). Mulligan gives this intelligent yet naive schoolgirl real heart, and is totally charming as an innocent and trusting high school student.

Meryl Streep perfectly captures the great chef Julia Childs in the comedy Julie & Julia. Streep has the accent, the mannerisms, and Childs' zest for life down pat, and she's convincing in the kitchen. Playing opposite Stanley Tucci, Streep looks as though she's having a blast becoming this gigantic woman. Child's warmth and spirit flow from the screen through Streep's performance.

Michelle Monaghan (Eagle Eye) stars as a truck driver forced into taking in her 11 year old son (played by Jimmy Bennett) in this touching tale from first-time writer/director James Mottern. When her ex becomes seriously ill, Diane (Monaghan) has to adjust her life on the road to accommodate the needs of her son. Monaghan's character is rough around the edges, and the 33-year-old dissolves into the role. It's easily her best performance to date.

25 year old Gabourey Sidibe plays a pregnant high school student from Harlem in Precious, one of the most disturbing movies of 2009. Based on the novel Push, Precious is one of those films that lingers with you after the credits role, as does Sidibe's performance.

This is Sidibe's first feature film, but you would never know it. This had to be an incredibly difficult role to shake at the end of each day of shooting, and Sidibe must be applauded for putting herself out there to take on the part of a teenager raped by her father, abused by her mother, who's basically shut down in order to protect herself from more pain. And Sidibe hits all the right notes playing a girl who, despite her horrific home life, still has hope in her heart.

Sandra Bullock's delivered some pretty incredible performances over the course of her career, but her starring role in The Blind Side rises above anything she's done before. Bullock goes blonde, gets bossy, and totally commits to bringing the true story of a wealthy family who changed the life of a homeless teenager to the screen. A surprising hit at the box office, The Blind Side did just that to audiences. We didn't see this one coming, but moviegoers and movie critics ate up what Bullock had to offer. And it's wonderful to see Bullock pull off a hit in something other than a romantic comedy.

Robin Wright Penn steadily goes about her work. She's not showy, she doesn't go out of her way to get into the press, and she prefers to take on projects far outside the mainstream. I loved her in Sorry, Haters (a film which no one saw) and it's likely that there will never be much of an audience for The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Dramas don't drive box office business, but thankfully that's not what Wright Penn is all about anyway. Wright Penn shows us a woman who's emotionally vulnerable after losing her identity from being married to a much older man and raising two kids. Wright Penn's performance is captivating, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.

Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss) stars in this period piece about the intense love affair between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne. Cornish is absorbed into the character of Fanny, standing her ground as Keats' best friend and collaborator Charles Brown (Paul Schneider) tries to tear the couple apart. Writer/director Jane Campion got the best out of Cornish, writing a strong woman unafraid to speak her mind but who's also not afraid to have fun for Cornish to play around with. Any actress would have loved to have had the opportunity to tackle a role this delicious, and Cornish jumps in with both feet and makes the most of it.

Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer are at the top of their games in The Last Station, the entrancing tale of the tumultuous last years of Tolstoy's life. The Last Station is set in 1910 as the battle over Tolstoy's legacy rages on between Tolstoy's wife of 48 years, the fiery Countess Sofya (Mirren), and Vladimir Chertkov (played by Paul Giamatti), the leader of the Tolstoyians. Sofya's not willing to quietly give over her rights to her husband's work, and she lashes out at all of her husband's sycophantic supporters. Mirren is as fearless in her performance as her character is in striking out at her husband's followers who attempt to usurp her position.

In an ensemble cast that includes Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, and Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas, it's Marion Cotillard's performance in Nine that was genuinely entertaining. The movie itself is nothing to sing and dance around about, but Cotillard delivers the goods. Cotillard has a beautiful - and powerful - singing voice and she manages to take a single note character and imbue her with an engaging personality and more depth than anyone else in the large cast.

It can be argued Cotillard's a supporting player in this and not a lead, but her character is central to the entire storyline and has the most impact of any female in the cast.

Saoirse Ronan picked up an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in the critically acclaimed drama Atonement, and with The Lovely Bones Ronan proves that wasn't all she had in her. Ronan's just 15 years old but she's poised and confident and her acting is never juvenile. She has a wise-beyond-her-years air to her acting, which is perfect for the role of a murdered 14 year old who watches over her family from a holding area - "the in-between" - on the way to heaven. Acting against green screens, Ronan had to trust director Peter Jackson's vision of this heavenly waystation. The performance Ronan delivers shows she fully committed to this fantastical afterlife her character's trapped in.