Woman of the Year: Anne Hathaway

Since breaking onto the scene in hilarious fashion in 2001's The Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway has slowly and surely expanded her repertoire and emerged as one of the most talented, versatile young actresses in Hollywood; one only need to take a look at her performances this year to know as much.  While her early career was marked by more kid friendly fare - a Diaries sequel, Ella Enchanted, Hoodwinked! - she started branching out and baring all with Havoc and Brokeback Mountain, and made it all the way to the Oscars with her incredible turn in Rachel Getting Married.  It was at that Oscars ceremony where Hathaway joined host Hugh Jackman on stage to help him sing through his DIY monologue, an important display of her immense star power (and an instance of thrilling foreshadowing).

Hathaway's work following Rachel Getting Married was largely forgettable up to this year: Valentine's Day (just another face in the ensemble), Bride Wars (bland and forgettable), Love and Other Drugs (a fine performance wasted on a subpar film), and One Day (who can forget her horrific British accent?).  Then came 2012, and Hathaway with pivotal roles in two of the year's most anticipated movies: Christopher Nolan's trilogy-ending The Dark Knight Rises and Oscar winner Tom Hooper's adaptation of Les Miserables.

When I first saw The Dark Knight Rises, I was less than enthused.  After the gorgeous crime epic that was The Dark Knight, the third chapter felt slow, meandering, even boring.  I finally gave it a re-watch last week and found myself utterly engrossed in the beautiful visuals and deep investment in its characters; suddenly, things were clicking for me that hadn't before.  My theory is that the film was perhaps too much to digest at a midnight showing for me, a fellow who doesn't do many of those anymore.  Regardless, even upon my first viewing, it was clear to me that Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle (never referred to as Catwoman in the film) is the best part of The Dark Knight Rises.

Unlike the first two movies in Nolan's trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises gives the keys to the plot over to the women.  Nolan is notorious for writing weak female characters, so it was exciting to see him put them in control of the film's many twists and turns.  Of the two prominent female characters - the other being Marion Cotillard's Miranda Tate - Selina is the one who is really in control.  She has connections with everyone - fighting alongside Batman, making deals with criminals, protecting herself from Bane by offering Batman up - so she is never surprised.

Hathaway does incredible work in the role.  Rather than a simply sexy cat burglar, Selina emerges as one of the trilogy's most fleshed-out characters, thanks in large part to Hathaway's performance.  In the film's opening scenes, Hathaway portrays a wonderful transformation: Selina in disguise as a servant who, with the shot of an arrow, shows her true colors, beautiful and confident, lithe and dangerous.  Though the character is much more about her mind than her body, Hathaway achieves a perfect physicality for Selina, even more effective than Tom Hardy's work on Bane, who poses such an intimidating physical presence.

There are so many nuances and beautiful moments in Hathaway's work in the film.  The wide-eyed attempt at escape at the airport, the way she adopts the posture of a screaming woman at the bar when a deal goes bad, her eventual decision to fight at Bruce's side.  Miranda bares all to seduce Bruce, but Selina doesn't need any such tricks.  As is, she is exactly what Bruce wants, and vice versa: he's the fresh start for her.  And it's a fresh take on the character than deserves to stand alongside other iconic takes (Michelle Pfeiffer, I'm looking at you).

Hathaway's more buzzed-about performance this year comes courtesy of Les Miserables, in which she plays the factory worker turned prostitute Fantine, who desperately tries to make enough money to send on to her young daughter's caretakers but ultimately falls ill and beseeches Jean Valjean to rescue her daughter.  Hathaway has perhaps twenty minutes of screentime in the nearly three-hour affair, but she does such incredible work that her presence is felt throughout the film.

Early in the film, Hathaway belts the ballad "I Dreamed a Dream," and the despair she evokes is incredible.  In an extended close-up, Hathaway sings through the entire song, relying on the control of her voice and the expressive range of her face to display the initial sadness and the rising anger that fuel the song (which is sung after servicing a john).  It's the sort of musical dynamite that seems to carve Hathaway's name on the Oscar as it's being sung, the same way Jennifer Hudson did when signing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" in Dreamgirls.  As in The Dark Knight Rises, Hathaway gives herself over completely to the character, physically, emotionally, vocally.  A haircut and weight loss provide the grounds for her transformation, but it's what Hathaway does with that new appearance, the way she animates it and fills it with agony, that makes Fantine such an unshakable presence in the film.

Hathaway has had a banner year, taking on two very different, very iconic roles, and making each her own.  2013 lacks any new releases from the star (she has Rio 2 and Robopocalypse due in 2014), but she should be taking the Oscar stage yet again in a couple months - not as a singer or host as she has before - but as a winner.