6. Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Here's a nomination that bugged me from the moment it was announced, and one that I still fail to understand. Rooney Mara gives an adequate performance as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but really, was her turn worth nominating over far superior performances which were snubbed, specifically Tilda Swinton's year-best turn in We Need to Talk About Kevin? It must've felt plenty insulting to Noomi Rapace, who many will contend gave a vastly superior performance in the original Swedish take on the film, though of course, she didn't receive anywhere near as much publicity as Mara due to the film's foreign language. Mara was tasked with the problem of trying not to imitate Rapace and put her own stamp on the character, and though generally speaking I do prefer Fincher's version in terms of direction and acting, it's still baffling that the Academy opted to nominate a performance so resolutely ordinary. The excessive nudity required of Mara was unquestionably brave, but that alone cannot be a barometer for nomination. What else was there?