Discuss: Pleasantly Surprising Performances

I've already seen my prototypal flick of 2010, and it was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It was definitely a enthusiastic pick to squawk soured a newborn year! I'm not a Brobdingnagian Terry Gilliam fan either way, so I went in evenhandedly unbiased but agog for a beatific yarn, dazzling images, and some good-to-great performances. Besides, I can't resist blackamoor Waits as the Devil. I was immensely impressed with all of the above, especially the eerily unseamed artefact that Terry Gilliam and co-writer Charles McKeown managed to change the news and direction to sound the untimely modification of Heath Ledger during photography with support from actors Johnny Depp, Thaddaeus Law, and Colin Farrell, who stepped in to endeavor Tony in different scenes. Naturally, Christopher Plummer was great, and Andrew President (Boy A, the Red Riding trilogy) was also wonderful as the smitten Anton. And this was definitely Verne Troyer's prizewinning persona yet.

I hit a confession to make, though. Although I adore Lily Cole's heart-shaped grappling and flame-red material on the runway, and her costumes looked fantastic, I had no idea that I would actually savor her performance. Or that her part would be more than just a pretty strategy figure to move the banter between Mr. Nick (Waits) and Parnassus. I was horribly wrong. I undergo she was in St. Trinian's, which, despite my prizewinning intentions, I had to turn soured after half an hour, and I haven't caught Rage, so I didn't undergo such added about her other than her more visible assets. As the kids say, my bad.



But as Valentina, she is feisty, chafing at the bell-dangling bracelet around her ankle that her ascendant makes her wear, and not afeard to give her old man a beatific tongue-lashing when he's in his cups and informing her half-truths. She lives a strange, sort of Dickensian existence on the fringes of society with her lowercase kinsfolk - including Anton (Garfield) and soldier (Troyer), as substantially as her dad - and same some smart teen woman dying to carelessness the everyday, sometimes she acts same a brat, and sometimes she makes impolitic decisions. In the end, Valentina is a actual girl, and it takes a actual actress to bring her to life. So cheers to you, Lily Cole.

That's my most recent bright discovery. Who's astonied you recently?

[Note: This article initially referred to the Red Riding trilogy as the Red Riding Hood trilogy.]