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Critic's Notebook

Actors who took flight in 2011

Earning their wings

By Ty Burr

 |  Globe Staff  

  December 11, 2011

If the movie year just ending hasn’t given us much in the way of timeless cinema, 2011 has marked the arrival of three acting talents to the big tent of fame. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve appeared out of nowhere but that their personas have suddenly gelled due to good work and a lot of it. Jessica Chastain, Ryan Gosling, and Michael Fassbender will ring in the new year as full-fledged movie stars where 12 months earlier they were each something very different. What changed and how, and why do they suddenly seem so necessary to the cultural conversation? Ty Burr explains.

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