Cate Blanchett's Big, Little Movie

In spite of onscreen coronations as both Elizabeth I and Elfin Queen Galadriel, what really crowns Aussie actress Cate Blanchett's sovereign status is her incredible range and talent ‑- and her ability to portray women under extraordinary circumstances.

In Veronica Guerin (a small film with big backers -- Hollywood veterans Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced, and director Joel Schumacher) ‑- Blanchett burns with the passion of the Irish journalist and anti-drug crusader of the title, who lost her life in a struggle to bring order and justice to tragically ineffective drug-crime legislation in Ireland in the late 1990s. This is not a spoiler: The film reveals her murder by a drug dealer's assassin at the start (60 Minutes featured Guerin in a 1996 special; and American actress Joan Allen portrayed the Irish journalist in When the Sky Falls, 1999).

This is sort of a spoiler: Louche lad and Irish "It" boy Colin Farrell has a cameo as "Tattooed Boy."

"My husband saw the film and described it as being somewhat like a car crash it unfolds before you and you're constantly wanting to it to stop," says Blanchett, who wed film editor and screenwriter Andrew Upton in 1997. The couple has a two-year-old son, Dashiell John (named after The Maltese Falcon novelist), and are expecting another child this spring.