BLACK SWAN Movie Review: Oscar Best Actress Natalie Portman

BLACK SWAN - Black Swan Movie Review, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis

NEWS FLASH! - OSCAR WINNER 2011!

BEST ACTRESS - Natalie Portman for Black Swan

There has been so much buzz on how great Black Swan is, that I just had to go and see it. Although this movie is classified by IMDb as drama/thriller, it is more aptly classified as a psychological thriller bordering on horror. The audience is bombarded with horrific bloody scenes (and I'm not being English), disturbing images, paranoia, insanity, sex without passion (what?), and lesbian tryst that the director, Darren Aronofsky, thought necessary to prove a point... shocking the audience works.

The movie revolves around Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a woman who has dedicated herself so completely to the ballet and the art of dance, that it has stunted her emotional and social development to say the least. She is frigid and quiet. She doesn't have any friends or social life and, therefore, has difficulty relating to people. Nina is afraid of everything, including her own shadow. She lives with her head-tripping, smothering mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey), a former dancer who achieved only moderate success, and now lives vicariously through her daughter. She doesn't have any privacy as her mother is always breathing down her neck and treats her like a child. Her bedroom is like a little girl's room with pink floral bedspread and full of cuddly stuffed animals. Her mother keeps on winding up a music box to help her fall asleep, which is creepy and annoying and you just want to smash the box to stop the never ending tune.

The Plot

When it is announced that the star of the show, Beth MacIntyre (a small part played brilliantly by Winona Ryder) has been made to retire, the remaining dancers all compete to win the coveted role of the Swan Queen in the first production of the season, a role that will elevate the dancer to fame.

Although the show’s director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), has serious reservations, he chooses Nina because of her near perfect mastery of the movements. The character of the Swan Queen is dual in nature, and while Nina can easily handle the White Swan's role, Leroy worries that she may be incapable of releasing herself enough to truly become the seductive and dangerous Black Swan. To help her get out of her shell, Leroy begins a series of mind games that are intended to relax Nina, and challenge her. One of these challenges was bringing in the dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) , who is free-spirited and full of passion. Lily tries to befriend her but, Nina believes that Lily is trying to steal her role, so she avoids her like the plague. But wherever she goes, Lily is there.

As Nina attempts to express herself as the Black Swan, the pressure of the role begins to manifest itself in increasingly intense ways that range from strange disturbing visions to physical wounds, real and surreal. And as the opening date nears, Nina becomes increasingly paranoid and on the verge of nervous breakdown. She almost misses the opening night, the most important night of her career.

Set in the cutthroat New York ballet world, Black Swan is an example of go-for-broke filmmaking. This movie is one of the year’s most love-it-or-hate-it movies. Some critics found it maddening, but most declared themselves "swept away."

Portman's Performance

Natalie Portman delivers the best performance of her career, and she deserves at the very least an Oscar nomination, if not the win. It has to be duly noted that Portman performed almost all of the dancing herself, and that on itself is an amazing feat. Portman disappears so completely in the character, that despite how odd and repressed Nina is, and despite the fact that she rarely speaks to anyone other than her controlling mother, you grow an attachment to the character. You pity her and you feel for her, at the same time you want to slap her silly because you get so frustrated and annoyed by her reluctance, or should I say incapability, to embrace her opportunities.

Brilliant cast

A gripping, raw performance by the rest of the cast.  Good performances from Mila Kunis as Nina's nemesis Lily and Barbara Hershey as the obsessive, overcharging mother, Erica. The most noteworthy performance came from Vincent Cassel, as the control-freak show's director, whose very sharp performance stole every scene he was in.

Conclusion

Black Swan is a love-it-or-hate-it movie. I love to hate this movie because it left a pit in my stomach, but I can't. Even if I am not a big fan of director Aronofsky, I kinda enjoyed being shocked and this movie is shocking to say the least. It leaves the audience wondering "what the heck was that?" Mike Goodridge from Screen Daily described Black Swan "alternately disturbing and exhilarating." It was more disturbing at the same time exhilarating for me. IMBd (The Internet Movie Database) gave this movie an 8.7 rating. I am tempted to give this movie a 7, but it deserves more. So I'm giving this movie an 8. It's a great movie, go see it.

Did you know? by Rosie2010

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