MOVIES: Best of 2010 -- Actor

The runners-up:

• Ricardo Darin, The Secret in Their Eyes
• Michael Douglas, Solitary Man
• Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version
• Anthony Mackie, Night Catches Us
• Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

The nominees:

• Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole -- Heartbreaking portrait of a man coping not only with his own grief, but with his wife's refusal/inability to cope with hers.
• Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network -- Eisenberg finally stops trying to play lovable, and giving in to his inherent smugness and creepiness leads to his best performance ever.
• Colin Firth, The King's Speech -- You can see the pain and frustration on his face every time he's caught by his stammer; it's a more intensely physical performance than you realize at first glance.
• David Roberts, The Square -- The weariest performance of the year; Roberts' perpetual scowl of disappointment tells us everything we need to know about him in the first scene of the movie.

The winner:

• Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine -- like his co-star Williams, Gosling does a fine job of showing his character's subtle changes and intensifications over time. That puppydog enthusiasm that is so appealing at first becomes grating, with only the tiniest of changes on Gosling's part.