Kate Winslet, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

Winslet is easily the best thing about my favorite movie of the decade. She plays the free-spirited Clementine, a woman with neon hair and a quirky personality that you’d more expect from co-star Jim Carrey. She’s complicated and moody, but still the most appealing object of affection on film in the 2000s.

Forget Meryl Streep. With "The Reader," "Revolutionary Road," "The Holiday," "Little Children," "Finding Neverland," "Iris," and "Quills," Winslet is the leading lady of the new century.

Heath Ledger, “A Dark Knight”

Need this even be explained? Ledger’s bold, scary interpretation of The Joker unseats Hannibal Lecter as the definitive cinema villain.

Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy

No other screen character in the last 10 years can match the prominence and popularity of Captain Jack Sparrow. Thankfully, Depp’s slurring, stumbling rock star antics never got old. Bring on Part 4.

Don Cheadle, “Hotel Rwanda”

Cheadle never stumbles into showy Oscar-baiting as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina and his struggle to save lives in war-torn Rwanda. Just breathtaking, utterly convincing work.

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