BLACK SWAN

When I initially walked out of the cinema, I really wasn’t sure what to make of this. There were aspects of this bleak ride that I loved, coupled with a less tangible element that didn’t sit right for some reason. However the movie definitely stayed with me over the proceeding days and the more I think back on it and ponder it, the more I think it really was rather good.

The story focuses on ballet dancer Nina Sayers. Technically gifted yet emotionally stunted, she lives at home with her domineering mother and dedicates every waking hour to perfecting her craft. Her mother’s suffocating presence is revealed to be the result of both her vicarious desire for Nina’s career and Nina’s own troubled, self harming past. After years of dedication, she finally gets her big break as the lead in the company’s newest production of Swan Lake, but as she struggles with the part of the eponymous Black Swan the pressure begins to mount on her already brittle psyche.

I am still unsure about Aronovsky as a director (thankfully his Robocop reboot has been shelved), and the beginnings of the movie did nothing dissuade my misgivings. It was all shaky cam and ridiculously hard close-ups, which I hope was employed to signify Nina’s edgy, ill at ease personality, rather than as a stylistic choice. If the former, then I think I can eventually get on board with it; but if the latter, then it was just flat out annoying.

There were moments where the dialogue was risible - Thomas’s homework instruction to Nina, that she go home and engage in a spot of onanism felt like it came straight out of a Shannon Tweed movie. Although in fairness I would say that was a blip, because for the most part the acting was uniformly excellent. To be honest if Vincent Cassell and Natalie Portman have ever been anything less than great, then I’ve yet to see it. In the light of it’s Oscar glory, whatever else you might say about this film, you can’t deny that Natalie Portman is sensational, making Nina’s fragility utterly sympathetic and centring the movie with a crucial believability.

Mila Kunis, quite aside from being totally swoonsville, was also excellent as Nina’s friend/rival Lily. You’re never meant to be quite sure of her motives or if she is genuine or not. And at it’s core it’s this ambiguity throughout the main body of the film that makes Black Swan an interesting watch.

It's dark and tormented, and ultimately that's what won through for me.

IMDB: Black Swan