There have been some truly amazing performances by actors this year in film, but one stood out among the others. The winner of the Best Actor in a Movie award is Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the film The Dark Knight Rises.

Portraying the hero who stroked fear into the hearts of Gotham’s criminals, the audience finds that eight years have passed since the Joker brought Gotham to the brink of destruction and Batman took the fall for the death of Harvey Dent and the murders Two-Face committed. Gotham is in a state of peace, and Batman has been gone, but when a terrorist going by the name of Bane appears in Gotham, Bruce Wayne finds he must once again don the cowl and become Batman. Facing a deadlier, more brutal enemy that knows no bounds, Batman must rediscover his roots and become the hero Gotham needs at it faces being plunged into darkness once more.

As the concluding chapter to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Christian Bale truly captures the emotions of Bruce Wayne as he struggles to find a life outside of the Batman persona, and must come face to face with his own mortality. Bale manages to showcase that even heroes are people too, and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot escape the past or the emotional grips that the past has on us all. This is truly Christian Bale’s best performance as Batman to date, and that is why he is On Request Magazine’s Best Actor in a Movie of 2012.