*SPOILER: Don’t read below if you haven’t seen The Dark Knight Rises. Okay? I warned you… I absolve all blame. Treat this like the movie’s Wikipedia page.

What is it with Marion Cotillard, the damsel in distress who can always fend for yourself in nearly every good movie you’ve seen since 2008?

You don’t remember her from Big Fish, do you? You probably didn’t know who she was until she won Best Actress for La Vie en Rose, and even then you forgot about her until a couple years later, when she tore the roof off Public Enemies, was the only good part of Nine, made the villain desirable in Inception, and stole everyone’s heart in Midnight in Paris.

The accent, the hair, the eyes. It’s all there. And, now, she’s turned some obscure character named Miranda Tate into the only thing that competes with Catwoman’s legs in The Dark Knight Rises. She’s there for filler, but she steals scenes and eyes. It’s easy to see why Bruce Wayne never saw her coming – or her bad side. It’s easy to see why Christopher Nolan keeps coming to her for these roles, and why he hopefully won’t stop.

There’s something about Marion Cotillard… she’s viral to the flesh and the brain, and the heart follows closely behind.

Every time she appears on screen – whether it’s in DiCaprio’s dream, or 1920′s France, or Gotham City – you can’t help but feel as lost for words as Owen Wilson’s character, Gil Pender, did in Midnight in Paris:

“That girl was so… lovely.”