MANILA, Philippines—Brad Pitt has always been popular with moviegoers, thanks to his drop-dead, Golden Boy looks. Of late, however, he’s been downplaying his signature hunk persona and challenging himself as an actor of great sensitivity and range.

His latest starrer, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” is his best showcase to date, principally because it pressures him to push back his limits as an actor, since he has to make believable and empathetic a most unusual character: A boy who’s born old, and youthens through the decades, until he expires as a nonagenarian baby!

It’s a daunting challenge, but Pitt proves equal to it, and he’s wonderfully convincing as the really curious Benjamin Button with his “reverse aging” chronological arc. Yes, he’s sometimes aided by digital animation wizardry, but the emotional focus and psychological growth are all of his own making, and they’re compelling to behold.

Pitt is so good in David Fincher’s bravura production that his problem now is: What will he do to top this?

Curiously enough, however, the best thing about “Benjamin Button” isn’t Pitt’s fine performance, but the fact that his character’s unique and “impossible” story is told so affectingly that it is made relevant to everyone.

The empathic hook here is the film’s focus on the theme of love triumphant even in a universe where time has been turned upside-down and inside-out.

With Cate Blanchett playing his lady love, Button proves that the human heartbeat can remain constant and true even when time’s ticking and “forever” has become as evanescent as “once upon a time.”

Kate Winslet

Ever since she was a teenage thespian, Kate Winslet has been one of our favorite actresses. Her combination of beauty, acting talent, vitality and versatility is hard to come by in an entertainment industry where beauty alone is deemed credential enough for a flourishing career.

The fact that Winslet is much more than just a looker should have made her a bigger star than most. Ironically, however, this hasn’t happened, despite the phenomenal success of “Titanic.”

This is because, with only a few exceptions, Winslet has chosen to act in intimate movies rather than boffo blockbusters.

There’s also the nagging feeling that the ordinary film fan is intimidated by her cornucopia of abilities—which is a pity, because everybody should benefit from Winslet’s superlative artistry.

In any case, that’s all in the past because Winslet is now on top of the film world, thanks to the two awards she won at the recent Golden Globes for her exceptional performances in “Revolutionary Road” (Best Actress) and “The Reader” (Best Supporting Actress).

Her two award-winning roles are vastly different from each other, so her twin victories brilliantly attest to her amazing versatility and consistent competence as a thespian.

Tina Fey

In the field of television, the brightest new star is Tina Fey, and we don’t need her own recent triumphs at the Golden Globes (for her “30 Rock” sitcom) to further stoke our admiration for her.

Fact is, we’ve been Tina fans for years, ever since she joined the zany gang of regular comedians on “Saturday Night Live.” The long-running comedy show has discovered major stars for decades now, and it looks like Fey is its latest stellar find.

Thanks to the immense success of her Sarah Palin impersonation on “SNL,” Fey has become so popular that she’s spun off her own hit series, “30 Rock,” which she produces as well as stars in.

Aside from TV, Fey has also given the movies a go, not just as a performer but also as a screenwriter.