Black Swan | Review
Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’ is a fine piece of work. Told from the perspective of a talented ballet dancer, the film depicts the hardships of ballet and the physical (and in the film, mental) toll it could place on its performers. Featuring a powerful performance by Natalie Portman, ‘Black Swan’ becomes a film about “Swan Lake” into a psychological melodramatic thriller.
At the start of the film, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is introduced as a young and talented ballet dancer who still lived with her mother (Barbara Hershey). The ballet company Nina is involved in is busy preparing for their upcoming “Swan Lake” showcase. The director of the company, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), wants to re-imagine the traditional “Swan Lake” into something new and different. The original production involved a young woman who is transformed into a white swan and can only break the curse by finding true and eternal love. However, the ballet also features a black swan who tricks and seduces the white swan’s love. Leroy’s new rendition of the ballet will feature a single ballet dancer as both the White Swan and Black Swan – the Swan Queen.
The role of the Swan Queen is highly coveted, and Nina ends up getting the role. Leroy feels that Nina can pull off the White Swan role easily because she’s beautiful, delicate, and innocent, but needs work on conveying the role of the Black Swan. This role requires Nina to lose control and be dangerous – qualities the strict and perfectionist Nina does not have. Lily (Mila Kunis), a fellow ballet dancer at the same company, though, does have the qualities of the Black Swan.
Tension ensues between Nina and Lily during the film, though it’s mostly one-sided. Lily is the total opposite of Nina in terms of personality. She’s free-flowing, careless, and gritty. Lily is the perfect dancer for the role of the Black Swan, which causes Nina to become careful and disliking of her. In Nina’s perspective, Lily is a rival that should be carefully paid-attention to.
Nina has tension with Nina, Leroy, and even her mother. Erica, Nina’s mother, is very controlling of her daughter. A failed ballet dancer, Erica appears to be living through the success and triumphs of her daughter. Some of the scenes involving Erica and Nina are very intense and dramatic.
As Nina goes through more problems and turmoil, it appears as if she’s going through her own personal transformation, mirroring the story of “Swan Lake” itself. Delicate and innocent, Nina is forced to tap into her inner “Black Swan,” let go of her focus and perfectionist ways. Influenced by Lily, Nina goes through a phase in which she experiences life on the other end of the spectrum. She becomes more erratic, unstable, and dangerous to others, as well as herself.
Directed by the brilliant Darren Aronofsky (‘The Wrestler’ & ‘Requiem for a Dream’), ‘Black Swan’ features wonderfully-filmed scenes. All of the practices and dance sequences are filmed with shaky, handheld-camera work, and they’re mesmerizing to watch. The camera follows the movement of the dancers on screen, going with the flow, the swooshes, and the sweeps. Many of the scenes are filmed in single, lengthy shots, which is fascinating. This shows the lengths the director and actors on screen go through in order to perform single, perfect shots.
‘Black Swan’ features a beautiful score by Clint Mansell, based on the original “Swan Lake” sounds by Tchaikovsky. The dark and haunting score to ‘Black Swan’ is one of the best scores of 2010, with “Opposites Attract” as the standout track.
Natalie Portman gives her Academy Award-winning performance as Nina Sayers in the film, and she rightfully deserves it. Portman’s portrayal of a dangerously perfectionist and paranoid ballet dancer on the verge of a psychological breakdown is awe-inspiring. Barbara Hershey’s performance as Erica Sayers is just as wonderful to watch, with her powerful depiction of a controlling, but loving mother. Mila Kunis (‘That 70’s Show’) is surprisingly talented as the rival to Portman’s Nina, and Vincent Cassel is great as the brilliant, but prick of a ballet director.
‘Black Swan’ is a finely-made film that depicts the hardships of ballet dancers. The film earns new respect for the art of ballet dancing, with the characters accurately depicting the art form, and the actors/actresses working hard in their portrayal of the ballet dancers. ‘Black Swan’ is brilliant in the way it keeps itself moving forward, while never having a predictable plot. With various twists and turns, what started out as a simple story of a young ballet dancer striving for the lead role in a new rendition of “Swan Lake” quickly transforms into a haunting, psychological thriller.
