The hairy lips have it

What8217;s furry, like a pencil or a paintbrush, and the most wanted Hollywood star accessory?

Attention, winter movie stars: Yosemite Sam wants his facial hair back. This season, a who8217;s who of recognisable marquee draws can be seen on-screen conspicuously sporting that yesteryear trapping of male vanity, the moustache. Nothing says mucho macho quite like a 8216;stache. And, these days, movie stars are making pointed use of their male plumage in cerebral potboilers, historical epics, and quirky character studies alike.
So is the furry-upper-lip look making a comeback? If the examples here are any indication, the moustache is again having a moment. Hirsute for Hollywood!

Javier Bardem
Bardem as a lovesick romantic in the big-screen adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez8217;s novel Love in the Time of Cholera.
The 8216;stache: Broad, thick. What it says about the character: Pining after a woman who spurned his romantic overtures and married another man for 8220;51 years, nine months and four days8221;. Bardem8217;s moustache is an exaggerated frown, the embodiment of unrequited love.

Josh Brolin
Brolin as a corrupt narcotics officer in American Gangster and as a down-and-out Vietnam war veteran in the brainy thriller No Country for Old Men.
The 8216;stache two ways: In Gangster, it8217;s luxuriant and manicured, giving off a high-gloss sheen. In No Country, it looks forlorn and distinctly untidy8212;like it might be hiding stale beer and bits of fried chicken.
What it says about the characters: Brolin8217;s villainous cop in Gangster is all silken menace. Brolin8217;s broken-down, shot-up and downtrodden character in No Country is all cowboy. His moustache is a simple and unquestionable part of his facial landscape.

Ryan Gosling
Gosling as a creepy but sweet introvert who forms an emotional attachment to a lifelike sex doll in the dramedy Lars and the Real Girl.
The 8216;stache: Inelegantly trimmed, dorky.
What it says about the character: Dude, out of touch with reality. Lars uses his facial hair as a disguise to convince the rest of the world8212;and himself8212;that he8217;s a functioning adult.

Philip Seymour Hoffman
Hoffman as a CIA operative in the political potboiler Charlie Wilson8217;s War.
The 8216;stache: Unglamorous, a bushy curtain of bristle.
What it says about the character: That he8217;s a rogue and somewhat of a creep8212;albeit, a fast-talking, double-crossing, arms-dealing one.

Daniel Day-Lewis
Day-Lewis as a hardscrabble oil man in the epic There Will Be Blood.
The 8216;stache:Turn-of-the-last-century walrus whiskers.
What it says about the character: You8217;re not supposed to think about Day-Lewis8217; moustachioed Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, but the parallel is inevitable8212;it seems whenever the actor wants to portray someone aggressive and ambitious, he stops shaving his upper lip.

Jason Schwartzman
Schwartzman as one of three grieving brothers travelling through India in the dramedy The Darjeeling Limited.
The 8216;stache: Think 8216;60s George Harrison after he met Ravi Shankar.
What it says about the character: A louche American expatriate novelist-cum-Lothario, Schwartzman8217;s Jack spends a lot of the movie on the make for women. His facial foliage emphasises a je ne sais quoi of the diminutive actor8217;s male virility.
-Chris Lee LAT-WP