The Library of Babel: Best of the Decade

I'd be lying to say this bunch inspires as much passion in me as the previous grouping of actresses do. The reason, were I to venture a guess, is that when a great roles of actresses come along, they tend to astonish (well, me at least) even if the tragic truth is that most actresses will never come upon roles like those aforementioned 10. Now, there's no shortage in great roles for men, yet I found myself struggling to conjure up ones that moved me like the ladies had. Excellent work abounds, yet it would seem that my favorite auteurs also favor women, and relatively few of my favorite performances this decade came from the guys.

And still this is a damn fine group. I even bent the rules - not once, but twice - to accommodate a role that essentially spans two films, and to give equal credit to superb pair at the center of one of the decade's best biopics. And there were of course plenty I couldn't fit in, so honorable mentions go out to Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, Jeff Daniels and Lee Pace.

10. Mathieu Amalric in A Christmas Tale