Black Swan – Review

Throughout his career, Darren Aronofsky has yet to create a film that misses its mark.  I have not seen his first feature film, Pi, but the rest I have and they have all taken a piece of me.  He is reason enough to create a tremendous amount of anticipation.  As if it was not enough, Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel amplified my eagerness to see this film.  Positive this would not be a terrible film, I ventured to see if Aronofsky has continued to be the great filmmaker he has shown to be in the past.

Black Swan takes place in the modern-day world of the New York City Ballet.  Nina (Natalie Portman) has devoted her life to art and his hoping to receive the highly sought-after and challenging role of The Swan Queen in her company’s new production of “Swan Lake”.  To her surprise, she gets the part.  However, tensions begin to rise between Nina, the ballerina she is replacing (Winona Ryder), and the new girl who she feels is out to steal her part (Mila Kunis).  Soon Nina finds herself in a world of seduction, fear, pain, and destruction, with her biggest obstacle, herself.

Black Swan shows us the dark side of ballet.  When one hears the term, they associate graceful dancing, with light colors and perhaps romance.  In this film, ballet is quite the opposite.  Nina lives with her mother (Barbara Hershey), a former ballerina, and has been training to be a ballerina her entire life.  Meanwhile, she has been under her mother’s overly protective and strict rule.  The film is packed with potent themes, the most prominent, the effects of the drive for perfection.   One result, Nina reopens childhood scars once she is given the role of The Swan Queen and begins to have nightmarish delusions.

From the film’s opening moments, Aronofsky owns us.  He draws us in with a ballet performance, then to Nina’s everyday routine, and moves onto her ordeal surrounding the role. He engrosses us with Nina by having us follow her.  There are rarely, if any, scenes where she is not the focus.  Aronofsky exploits Nina’s pain and fear exquisitely and with great finesse, to the point where it can no longer be called exploitation.  Nina sacrifices everything for the ballet and feels under-appreciated, thus causing her to sacrifice more.  On top of her struggle with herself, she becomes paranoid of Lily, a new dancer.  This all creates a constantly moody tone, and the horrific visions she has, add to it.

One aspect of the film which I found very interesting was that the film is also the story of swan lake.  Nina is The Swan Queen, Lily is the Black Swan, and Thomas (Vincent Cassel) is The Gentleman.  Aronofsky uses this element perfectly.  It offers us a storyline to follow and some peace of mind as to where the film is headed.  But every so often, Aronofsky throws a curve-ball reminding us there’s something else going on.  A film which remains wholly confusing until the end is not for everyone, and if not handled properly can be devastating to watch.  Aronofsky confuses us and keeps us in the dark by masterfully blending reality and illusion. At the same time, however, he makes us feel like we know at least half of what is going on.

Natalie Portman is the star of this film.  She is in most scenes, if not all.  Her performance is key to this film, and she brings the level of intensity and emotion needed.  Mila Kunis is perfectly cast as Lily.  Her performance is not as strong as Natalie Portman’s but that is not a bad thing, nor her fault, as Portman’s character is gargantuan in comparison. Also perfectly cast is Vincent Cassel, he suits the role of a stern European ballet director like ketchup on fries.  His character is solid and offers the film some needed comic relief.  Lastly, Barbara Hershey is very convincing as Nina’s mother.  I have not seen her other work, but her presence was very evident onscreen, and often, chilling.

There is much to this film, and I feel that my review cannot do this film all the justice necessary.  Nevertheless, Black Swan is thoroughly engrossing and strips the human soul down to the bone.  The intensity of the film continually rises up until the very end, at which point, the film reminds you that for the past 107 minutes, you belonged to it.  Black Swan leaves you in awe of its raw power and with a sudden desire to watch it again.  Something I have been teased with whilst writing this review.

9/10

 

 

A Word for Teens: Teenagers may or may not like this film.  It is a horror film in a sense, but not what they are used to seeing.  It is very likely that they lose interest 20-30 minutes into the film.  If they don’t, they may feel disappointed in the end realizing that it is far more of a drama than they had anticipated.  If they are aware that this is not conventional horror, than they will be at least pleased.