MOVIES: Best of 2011 -- Actress

The runners-up (and there are only four; the pickin' was slim this year):

• Sareh Bayat, A Separation
• Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
• Elizabeth Olson, Martha Marcy May Marlene
• Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

The nominees:

• Berenice Bejo, The Artist -- a smile that brightens the room, some perfectly played physical comedy, moving emotional moments -- what more could you want?
• Vera Farmiga, Higher Ground -- the pain is palpable as Farmiga struggles with the realization that she is losing the faith which has always sustained her.
• Adepero Oduye, Pariah -- the joy of first love, the pain of watching a marriage disintegrate, the fear that secrets will be discovered -- all of these things feel fresh again in Oduye's quiet performance.
• Yun Jung-hee, Poetry -- another very quiet and understated performance, capturing the struggle of a woman to find her own voice, and a way through her moral labyrinth, in a society that doesn't take women (especially old women) very seriously.

The winner:

• Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia -- the smiles in the opening scenes can't hide the terrifying knowledge that her demons are back; this is as good a portrait of crippling depression as we've ever seen.