Oscars 2009: Best Actor Nominees

The 81st Annual Academy Awards show is Sunday, Feb. 22. Here are the five nominees for Best Actor. Who will win? Comment below. For the entire list of 2009 Oscar nominees visit: www.oscar.com

Photos: Mickey Rourke is just one celeb who let his age defeat him.

Best Picture Nominees

Best Actress Nominees

Photos: Who might win?

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BRAD PITT ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button")

ROLE: Benjamin Button

SUMMARY: A magical tale about man born in 1918 New Orleans who ages in reverse and, in so doing, becomes intimately familiar with the natures of love and death.

REVIEW: Brad Pitt spends half the movie disguised in age-ravaged makeup, and it's at his old-man stage that he invokes Forrest Gump's simplepminded innocence. As Benjamin ages - that is, grows younger - Pitt radiates pensive soul. As he did in "Meet Joe Black," he restrains himself by assuming an otherworldly placidity. -- Chris Garcia, Austin American Statesman

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SEAN PENN ("Milk")

ROLE: Harvey Milk, a camera store owner

SUMMARY: Harvey Milk campaigns for a place on San Francisco's Board of Supervisorthe as the first openly gay man elected to a notable U.S. public office, a landmark event within the gay rights movement.

REVIEW: What an astonishing actor he has come to be, embodying a character without any obvious artifice. How did he choose here to play a proudly gay man? With complete naturalism. You never feel Penn is reaching. He plays Harvey Milk with ease, never self-conscious, not the hero of a biopic but just this nice man who was made political by society's injustice. -- Roger Ebert

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FRANK LANGELLA ("Frost/Nixon")

ROLE: President Richard Nixon

SUMMARY: Frank Langella portrays the former president at the time of his failed attempt to resuscitate his career through a series of interviews with talk show host David Frost.

REVIEW: Langella is the reason to see the film, smuggling his lugubrious Tricky Dicky well past the script's limited grasp. It's a superb performance, looming like a spectre over the words and deeds of "misunderestimated" politicians everywhere. -- Tim Robey, The Daily Telegraph

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MICKEY ROURKE ("The Wrestler")

ROLE: Randy, a lonely, hard-luck wrestler

SUMMARY: An aging wrestler tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter and get his battered body in shape for a rematch of one of his most-lauded fights.

REVIEW: What makes the movie work as well as it does, enlisting our empathy with a big heart and emotional sobriety, is Rourke playing a role that so uncannily reflects his acting career. "The Wrestler" reeks of regret and curdled dreams, but its star, in a searingly tender performance, fights hard against the dying of the klieg lights. Maybe that's why the film wears its valedictory air so comfortably. -- Chris Garcia, Austin American Statesman

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RICHARD JENKINS ("The Visitor")

ROLE: Walter Vale, a Connecticut economics professor

SUMMARY: A lonely widower's life undergoes a transformation when he finds two illegal immigrants occupying his New York apartment.

REVIEW: You may still not be able to recall the name of veteran character actor Richard Jenkins after seeing his superbly subtle performance in "The Visitor," but at least he graduates to "that guy who plays the rejuvenated professor in that movie about detention of illegal immigrants." -- Harp Erstein, Palm Beach Post

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