Here’s another ’06 contender: Milos Forman‘s Goya’s Ghosts, a Saul Zaentz production with Javier Bardem and the luminous Natalie Portman in a double role. Synopsis: “In 1792 Spain, the revolution has sent neighboring France into turmoil and the Spanish church decides to restore order by bringing back the dreaded Inquisition. A key orchestrator is the enigmatic and cunning priest Lorenzo (Bardem), a man who seeks power above all. Lorenzo’s friend is Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgaard), Spain’s most famous artist and portraitist to kings and queens. When his beautiful model Ines (Portman) is unjustly imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition their friendship is put to a test as Goya begs Lorenzo to spare the poor girl’s life.” Kinda sounds like rough-going to me, but reader Darren Buser suggests that Bardem “could wind up a Best Actor contender. As could Natalie Portman, who is playing two roles (the muse and her daughter), in the modes of beautiful and sad-ugly-pathetic