Streisand, Hathaway boost anticipated releases

STREISAND (right) smothers Seth Rogen in “The Guilt Trip.”

Tired of Hollywood’s noisy, testosterone-heavy potboilers? This month, Tinseltown is fielding female A-listers in award-worthy dramas and high-profile comedies as it commences its run-up to the Oscars.

With the release this week of Robert Lorenz’s baseball drama, “Trouble With The Curve,” Amy Adams gets a confidence-boosting head start for an Oscar campaign, because her fine performance as Clint Eastwood’s overachieving daughter has already won her a Best Supporting Actress nod from an award-giving body. (Even the prolific 82-year-old actor is memorable in a poignant scene where he recites the lyrics to “You Are My Sunshine” for his dead wife.)

Jessica Chastain’s formidable acting chops are likewise showcased in the military drama, “Zero Dark Thirty,” Kathryn Bigelow’s follow-up to 2008’s “The Hurt Locker.” In it, Chastain portrays the mastermind of the “decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy Seal last year.”

HATHAWAY. Generates Oscar buzz for her role in “Les Miserables.”

Getting a bigger Oscar buzz is Anne Hathaway, who figures in a singing-acting thespic combo in Tom Hooper’s screen adaptation of the stage musical, “Les Miserables.”

As the troubled prostitute, Fantine, Hathaway gets to sing “I Dreamed A Dream,” one of musical theater’s most iconic ballads. If a picture truly paints a thousand words, the stills from the anticipated movie should clue you in on how effective the hardworking actress is in the role.For her part,  Barbra Streisand is coming out of retirement. Yes, she acted in 2004’s “Meet The Fockers” and its 2010 sequel, “Little Fockers,” but those appearances were glorified cameos at best. Her costarring role in “The Guilt Trip,” with Seth Rogen playing her inventor son, is her first since 1996’s “The Mirror Has Two Faces.”