Black Swan

"Black Swan" is a raw, psychological film designed to overwhelm you with emotions. The combination of look-a-likes, mirrored images, surrealism, fantasies, doppelgangers, and insanity leaves "Black Swan" feeling like "Swan Lake" meets David Lynch in the twilight zone.


Natalie Portmans depiction of the ballerina Nina is as beautiful as it is gritty. You don't watch her act, you feel her. Her performance doesn't just overshadow the film - it breathes life in to it. Portman truly stands out, we are in her heroines mind throughout the film, understanding her emotions and thoughts is crucial. Mila Kunis turns in a good, but not world beating performance. She seemed a little out of place, her style adding levity to a movie that didn't really need it. Natalie Portman gives an amazing performance and the rest of the supporting cast is great, but Kunis stands out as not being on the same level as her costars. But after the steamy lesbian sex scene the two share, nobody will be complaining.

“Black Swan” tells the story of a ballerina, Nina Sayers (Portman), who aches, Literally and figuratively, for perfection. Like all those in her profession, her life is completely consumed with dance. Nina, lives in a tiny Manhattan apartment with a stereotypical stage mother and former ballerina (Barbara Hershey). The mother/daughter relationship between the two is chilling. You get a real grasp on the mental stability of both of them early on when mommy dearest tucks a 20 something year old Nina into an all-pink, butterfly-patterned bedroom full of stuffed animals. The artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) of Nina's ballet company decides to replace lead ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, his own version of Swan Lake, which will emphasize a woman's tragic duality. Coinciding the tryouts, is the arrival of new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis), a badass free spirit with a swan tattoo on her back. Thomas is initially hesitant to cast Nina in the lead role. While she is perfect for the White Swan character, Nina has trouble capturing the other character, the Black Swan. Nina is a perfectionist who is noted as being amazing technically, but her dancing is restrained and unemotional. The Black Swan requires a dancer who is more emotion, less restrained and naturally graceful - Lily. Lily has a passion Thomas has longed to see from Nina. Chosen for the role of Swan Queen, Nina feels Lily's breath on her neck as her main competitor and possible successor. Before she was cast as the Swan Queen, Nina was the up-and-comer, now she's Beth, the uneasy star of the show. Jealousy mixes with fear, confusion, desire and lust creating an uneasy friendship between the two dancers. Through her rivalry and destructive friendship with Lily, combined with increased pressure to transform herself in to the evil black swan, we see Nina slowly lose her grip on reality as her life begins to mirror the ballet she is preparing for.

Aronofsky is subtle with what he reveals, leaving viewers to stare into the film’s many facets in an attempt to decipher what's reality and whats fantasy. Black Swan like many psychological films, tries too hard to be smarter than it needs to be. Black Swan uses a heavy dose of surrealism. The sloppy way it transitions between fantasy and reality will leave you with the taste of a bad David Lynch film in your mouth. Because we are in Nina's head, often what the audience sees is only taking place in Nina's head. At some point, Nina literally starts becoming a swan - her body sprouts feathers and her feet begin to become webbed. While these fantastical elements do a great job showing the audience Nina's mental state, the downside is that they ultimately end up taking away from the story. Too often in the film, the audience sees something happen, only to eventually discover that the events only happened in Nina's head. Because of this, you begin questioning the reality of everything you are seeing. If nothing seems real, it cheapens the entire story. I wasn't blown away by the film, I was blown away by the story. And this is one of those cases, in which the director seems to let himself get in the way of the story - Just a little bit.

Overall, all I can say, is that Black Swan is an amazing film that is truly beautiful. From beginning to end, it takes you on an emotional journey that allows you to feel every bit of Nina's joy and pain.