Black Swan (Greg)

Natalie Portman stars as ballerina Nina Sayers in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.  She's obsessed with perfection, and at twenty-eight years old, is still in many ways a child, mostly because of a pushy, domineering, yet caring mother (Barbara Hershey). On her path to perfection as the Swan Queen in her company's production of Swan Lake, Nina is at odds with her obsessively concerned mother, her lustful and manipulative director (Vincent Cassell), and newcomer ballerina Lily (Mila Kunis), all of whom may have ulterior motives. By the halfway point Nina's obsession gets the best of her and the movie shifts from character drama to warped over-the-top thriller. The viewer will be forced to question what's real and what's in Nina's mind as the movie gets progressively stranger moving to its beautifully absurd climax.

While the entire cast is solid, Portman steals the spotlight for capturing all the nuances of her complex and twisted character. Her face lights up the way a child's would when she calls her mother with good news. Yet even as a sheltered virgin she still has a natural charisma. She sells her transformation into the black swan persona with every inch of her body, from her style of dancing to her subtle mannerisms. And even as the plot takes some disturbing turns, she never loses the audience's sympathy. This is the first time since Leon: The Professional that I've been so captivated by Natalie Portman's acting. This is easily the highlight of her career so far and bound to get her some award consideration.

The cinematography is stunning and works on every level. It's beautiful at face value, communicates deeper motifs and character details efficiently without being too obvious, and allows the movie to pull off visual tricks that might make you cringe in a lesser thriller. Clint Mansell's score is once again a highlight. Borrowing heavily from Swan Lake, Mansell uses Tchaikovsky's music in imaginative and disturbingly effective ways. And what's more impressive is that only those deeply familiar with Tchaikovsky's classic will be able to tell which pieces of music were adapted and which were Mansell's own creations.

And on top of everything else. Black Swan succeeds largely because it never goes for obvious emotional cues. The movie's light on jokes or overt comedy but full of the kind of humor that flows naturally from real life. There are also moments of camp and excess, and moments of tense drama and genuine suspense and horror, and you won't always know which are which. Some will call Black Swan sincere drama and others an overblown melodrama. Some will compare it to The Red Shoes and others will compare it to Fight Club. The movie's biggest achievement is that it's both, and it succeeds at being both. Some movies perform a careful tightrope walk around different genres and styles and can be taken two different ways. Black Swan instead decides there's far more art in seeing the tightrope walker fall with grace. It goes for different emotions all at once, and often ones that aren't supposed to mix.

That being said, if you found Aronofsky's previous movies too artsy and confusing, too depressing or too unsubtle in their message, this probably won't strike you as anything radically different. Black Swan is, however, more mainstream than Pi, less bleak than Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler, and easier to digest than The Fountain, so it would be unfair to dismiss it as more of the same. For any fans of Aronofsky, Mansell, ballet, tightly-structured thrillers, or any of the actors involved, this is an absolute must-see. It's a unique and moving experience and a definite contender for movie of the year.

Score: