The Top Five Performers of 2007

Earning an Oscar nomination takes hard work, a lot of luck, and some discernment in choosing the right roles. Plenty of actors will go their entire careers without ever getting one. So when I look back on the best performances of 2007, I'm particularly amazed when I notice actors who gave not one brilliant performance, but two.

Quantity isn't necessarily great by itself -- Tim Allen is in a lot of movies; that doesn't make him a genius -- but when it's accompanied by quality, it's worth paying attention.

With that in mind, here are my picks for 2007's five overall best performers:

John Cusack: Every time he makes a film I ask, "Who doesn't love John Cusack?" And it is a rhetorical question, because everyone loves him. This year he lent wry humor and genuine terror to 1408; he made Martian Child seem smart, honest and not just a manipulative tearjerker; and in Grace Is Gone he is simply devastating as a man who has lost his wife. When you want a character to be likable and sympathetic, you're halfway there just by casting Cusack. And Cusack is so good, he always makes sure to deliver the other half, too.

Michelle Pfieffer: After not appearing onscreen since 2002, this three-time Oscar nominee popped up twice in 2007, delivering hugely entertaining, scene-stealing performances both times. In Hairspray, she connived and lied (and sang!) as the evil Velma von Tussle; in Stardust, she camped it up as a wicked witch, completely unafraid to look hideous and mean. I enjoyed Stardust quite a bit, but now, four months later, she's the only thing I really remember about it. Don't make us wait another five years!

Tommy Lee Jones: When Tommy Lee Jones is at his best, he chooses roles that will reinforce his image as a strong, decent man, a modern-day cowboy. As a grieving father in In the Valley of Elah, he's determined to learn the truth about the death of his soldier son. In No Country for Old Men, he is an aging Texas sheriff grappling with the fact that evil is all around him and he may not be up to facing it. In both films, his sad, expressive eyes tell half the story, instantly earning our respect and encouragement as a quiet hero.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Good actors learn early in their careers to play to their strengths. Philip Seymour Hoffman knows his talents lie in portraying flawed, rumpled characters, often unkempt and sniveling. There is no vanity in him. As an overeducated, under-motivated theater professor in The Savages, Hoffman is a pathetic, hilarious creature, yet one we can uncomfortably identify with. His character in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead goes several steps further, completely devoid of morality or conscience, and it's absolutely thrilling to watch him as he descends toward his inevitable undoing.

Michael Cera: There is not a funnier 19-year-old in all of Hollywood, maybe not in all of the world, than Michael Cera. He can wring more laughs out of not knowing what to say than actors twice his age, and his performances in Superbad and Juno -- which, admittedly, aren't that different from his role on TV's Arrested Development -- are classics of awkward silence and earnestly stammered mis-communications. If he keeps his head on straight and continues to choose good projects, he could use his sharp comic timing to make us laugh for another 50 years.

Also considered: Christian Bale (3:10 to Yuma, Rescue Dawn), George Clooney (Ocean's Thirteen, Michael Clayton), Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Sweeney Todd), and Russell Crowe (3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster).

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Eric D. Snider (website) was going to mention John Travolta in Hairspray and Wild Hogs, but didn't.

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