SPOILER-ALERT: THE LESS YOU KNOW GOING IN, THE SWEETER THE REWARD
Miss Portman, can you please keep doing movies like this? I know you want the dough but it's movies like this that make you who you are. Don't do movies with Ashton Kutcher. Don't do movies like the upcoming Thor. First-off you can do much better chick-flicks than Ashton Kutcher; Wes Anderson loves you. Second-off why would you agree to Thor when you clearly can't do sci-fi; remember how you performed your role in Star-Wars?
Okay, I'm done venting. The acting is superb in Black Swan. I always have a soft-spot for Portman and this movie makes me glad I have that soft-spot. She did a great job maintaining a what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-me face throughout the entire movie in reaction to the scars that showed up on her back seemingly from nowhere. She also had to show focus while dancing, which had to be very straining on her. And, on top of all that, she had to portray the correct emotions to show the struggle between her and her mom, Barbara Hershey who also had a great performance. This is what makes the movie so tense and such a great watch. The terse mom who keeps cutting Nina's bloody nails and not letting her daughter relax. It is because of this the viewer gets the idea that the mom is suppressing the daughter and this is the main conflict for Nina, who's coach/ballet-director is telling her that her main problem in perfectly doing The Swan Lake ballet is not being able to let go and be free.
The Swan Lake Ballet is about a White Swan who is in love with a man but then he becomes seduced by the Black Swan. Both swans are characters that have to be played by Nina. Her coach tells her that she has the white-swan role down to a tee. But it is the emotional Black Swan that she can't do. The Black Swan isn't about being perfect. It's about showing seductive power through dance. As the movie goes on you can see why Nina is so intent on being the Queen Swan and not losing her role. She knows she is meant for the role because she actually is the Queen Swan in real life; she has a White and Black Swan in her. She just doesn't know it.
The movie is directed by Darren Aronofsky, and his directing combined with the tense orchestral music, stereotypical to ballets, is what makes the movie a suspenseful adventure. The mid-scene special effects and the camera not letting you see the entire scene add to the suspense. As my friend said, "Black Swan is a complete mind-fuck".
There are parallel stories to keep track of, The Swan Lake Ballet and Nina perfecting her role in it, and the personal issues of Nina herself. And these stories are what held me captivated by the movie. The scratches on the back and the other tensions with the mother are all problems caused by Nina's Black Swan trying to come out. However, it keeps getting overpowered by the mother's discipline. But the Black Swan comes out when she lets loose and lets herself go out with Mila Kunis's character Lily, who is another dancer in the studio and who looks like she is competing with Nina for favor from the director/coach of the Queen Swan Ballet. What Lily means to Nina, what secret the mother is trying to suppress from her daughter, and how far she'll go to please her ballet-director are all pieces of a puzzle that make all 108 minutes of Black Swan an excellent movie to watch and a definite Oscar-contender.
***I agree with IMDB's 8.8/10 and give it my official GO WATCH stamp of approval.
***PARALLELS: MEMENTO & BILLY ELLIOT
***DIRECTOR: Darren Aronofsky. ***TIME: 108 Minutes
