Black Swan is a beautifully made film, shot artfully and creatively, but in the end leaves the viewer feeling sort of empty and wishing for just a little more. It's big on looks and thrills, but in the end I wonder, where did we end up?
Natalie Portman's character, Nina Sayers, wins the lead role in the ballet Swan Lake at a major stage company in Manhattan. The role is a dual role, one part the delicate, innocent White Swan, and the other the darker, more seductive and intense Black Swan. Nina's demanding director, played by Vincent Cassel, uses every manipulation mind game in his significant arsenal to coax the Black Swan out of her. As the pressure builds and opening day nears, Nina descends into delusion, paranoia, and madness, no longer sure what is real and what isn't, who is out to get her and who is on her side.
The viewer sees the film mainly through Nina's eyes, which adds to the confusion of what exactly is going on here. One minute we see her cutting the tape off her ankles in close-up, revealing very real blisters and sores from the intensity of dance practice; the next she is plucking actual swan feathers from under her skin and sweating in a psychotic rage. We swear we see her in an extended hot and heavy sex scene with her understudy, Mila Kunis, but did it really happen? After a while, it becomes impossible to tell, which is to say it's impossible for our main character to tell what's going on around her. She's going mad.
All the while, there is the specter of Nina's cold, crazed, controlling Mom hanging over her, demanding to know her whereabouts and regulating food intake to ensure peak performance. But like the feathers, the wild night in bed, and the demons that lurk around every corner, we even wonder after a while how real Mom even is. Is she a direct cause of the madness that overtakes Nina...or is her very image a result of the madness?
It's all done very well, confusing yet vexing...to a point. By the time we reach the whirlwind climax on Black Swan's opening night, it feels like we've been put on the spin cycle of a washing machine. The difference between real and imagined becomes even more impossible to decipher, and the film's dramatic ending is no different. It's a maze of mirrors that lends itself well to conversation and analysis, but lacks the resolution we seek after investing so much emotional energy in a film.
Portman and Kunis are terrific in their roles, as is the terrifying Barbara Hershey as Nina's Mom. All things considered, Black Swan is worth a screening for its artistic value and uniqueness (I'm sure it will be especially striking on LCD HDTV), but don't expect a huge payoff in the end.
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