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This staring contest is getting far too long, their hearts are about to pop out their eye sockets. |
Black Swan (2010)
Overall Score: 88%
Certified: Black Swan
Score Breakdown:
Performance: 95% Plot: 85% Script: 85% Visuals: 80% Music: 85%
Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a perfectionist and ambitious dedicated dancer from a prestigious New York City ballet company. When her director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) announces that he is looking for a new Swan Queen to replace the prima ballerina Beth Maclintyre (Wynona Ryder) due to old age, Nina thinks that this is her opportunity to make a real breakthrough after spending years and years of dedication, dancing in everyday shows. At first, rehearsing the White Swan is just simply easy for her as the pure innocence, grace, and the perfection runs naturally in her blood. But to perform the evil twin - the Black Swan, it soon becomes her foremost problem. Lily (Mila Kunis), a transferred ballet dancer from San Francisco, seems to be friendly, yet competitive for Nina as Lily fits the Black Swan role perfectly; the dark side as well as the sensuality that she possesses becomes her strength, by being more carefree and deceptive.
As she pushes herself to earn the leading role in the remake of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Nina finds herself struggling in the process of the transformation, letting loose of her inner state of mind and the suffocation created by her obsessive former ballerina mother, Erica Sayers (Barbara Hershey). Somehow, those eventually lead to more of an obsession, a possession, a psychological breakdown and surprisingly a lot of blood which her life starts to unravel and falls apart as she discovers a menacing demon inside her. Wildly and heartbreakingly beautiful and at the same time, ugly.
Stunning. The audience's emotion is captivated by the actors' dramatic (but not over the top) performances. Natalie Portman did a marvelous job in presenting the director's vision. Her devotion in acting and a year of full intensive practice in dancing turned out really well and were in fact paid off. Without questioning, she convinced the audience's eyes that she IS a pro ballerina and successfully delivered the naïveté and Nina's fragility as the result of her mother's-too-much-caring, which is pretty sad and shattering. On the other hand, she revealed the dark side of Nina's personality once Nina is trying to take a huge leap in grasping over her own control in life. Mila Kunis should also be taken into account, because she only practiced dancing for six months while Natalie has been dancing her whole life. Her fun personality gave a significant contrast from Nina's. This duo working out together resulted in a twisted relationship between Nina and Lily (a pretty controversial one). Moreover, Nina's mother should also be remembered because despite the lack of her preparation (Barbara Hershey was cast at the very last minute) she nailed to perform Nina's mentally ill mother.
As for the visualization, Aronofsky put the special effects in such good manner, I mean, in its proportion, making Black Swan effortlessly attractive and surprises us in every corner of the scenes. You'll find the music a little bit disturbing in some scenes, but in general, haunting, otherwise this thriller movie won't come in such an excellent whole package. In addition to this, remarkable and dazzling show!
  Darren Aronofsky this time is able to show off his ability to elaborate a more intriguing masterpiece, just like his other award winning movies; The Wrestler (2008) and Requiem for a Dream (2000). He captures what a real artist strives for and frankly, it was frightening as we never know how harsh a ballet dancer life is. Though in the end I was fascinated by his daring and out-of-the-box idea. So, bare in mind that Black Swan is not a typical sugary, sweet, fantasy ballet movie. The ending may be a little bit ridiculous and confusing but Aronofsky managed to give the tension constantly, building up terror from the beginning of the movie to the very last second of the movie. It's a beautiful thriller that everyone would love. |
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nice film review!
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