2011 Muriel Award: Best Cinematic Breakthrough

While you probably know who's taking this one, the gap between first and second was a lot closer than I would have expected. Goes to show.

Third place:



Rooney Mara (actress, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) [64 points/11 votes]

Second place:



Elizabeth Olsen (actress, Martha Marcy May Marlene) [130/20]

And your winner...





Jessica Chastain (actress, all the movies) [160/23]

"How could anyone but Jessica Chastain win Best Cinematic Breakthrough? With just two little-seen films and some TV work to her credit prior to 2011, Chastain’s sudden ubiquity on movie screens last year would have been qualification enough to put her in contention. She appeared in six films, including a much-discussed commercial smash and one of the year’s most anticipated and critically lauded pictures, making any dutiful cinephile hard-pressed to miss her. But sheer quantity aside, the consistent quality of Chastain’s performances makes her worthy of topping the list of cinema’s most prominent discoveries in 2011.

Chastain carries an internal lightness to embody the way of grace in the form of a 1950s Texas mother and housewife in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. In contrast to her husband’s hard Old Testament love, her Mrs. O’Brien epitomizes unconditional maternal affection and supernatural watchfulness over/devotion to those struggling with a sinful nature. Although Chastain’s character represents a sanctified ideal, the actress invests her with wonder, humility, and quiet strength rooted in the human ordeal.

Channeling that reservoir of fortitude is key in her other most notable performances. In Take Shelter, Chastain does deeply empathetic work displaying the anguish that a spouse goes through in supporting a partner whose erratic behavior may be indicative of psychological disturbance. As undercover Mossad agent Rachel Singer in The Debt, Chastain delicately conveys her vulnerability and toughness. Rachel, who lost her mother in a concentration camp, is assigned a mission that requires her to undergo gynecological examinations from a physician suggestive of Josef Mengele. While those scenes play as nothing short of a violation, Chastain uses the natural discomfort in such situations to show the resolve Rachel possesses to fulfill her purpose. And in The Help, she reveals the layers and humor in the dolled-up, disreputable wife of a wealthy local man.

Any of these individual performances would have been sufficient for taking note of Chastain. That the release calendar delivered all her films within the span of approximately six months served to concentrate attention on Chastain’s strong, introductory body of work." - Mark Pfeiffer

See the full results.