Movie Review: "Black Swan"
**** out of *****
This is not your grandmother's ballet movie... It's dark as hell and as twisty as "Inception".
Natalie Portman is awesome as Nina Sayers, an aspiring young ballerina who lives her dream of dancing the Swan Queen in "Swan Lake", only to see that dream turn into a nightmare, when she crosses paths with a dark, sensuous rival who wants her role... Or does she even have a rival?? Swan Lake" is somewhat like "The Scottish Play" of ballet --some dancers have reportedly suffered nervous breakdowns while learning the part of the Swan Queen-- and the things that happen to Nina rip the covers off the depths of the dark places in her soul. Or is it all in her head?? Is her attempt to become both sides of the Swan Queen destroying her from the outside or from within?
The art design is fittingly monochrome, fitting the virginal White Swan and the seductive Black Swan -- a role traditionally danced by the same dancer. The soundtrack is largely a melange of Tchaikovsky's score and an original score that heavily evokes it. My only carp is that some of the sexual content got a bit much for my comfort level: I think a "less is more" approach would have made it more effective. ...but then again, we *are* seeing the inside of the mind of a girl as she confronts the darkness and weirdness she's been avoiding for so long, and even the most innocent can have some unpleasant stuff hidden away.
This is not your grandmother's ballet movie... It's dark as hell and as twisty as "Inception".
Natalie Portman is awesome as Nina Sayers, an aspiring young ballerina who lives her dream of dancing the Swan Queen in "Swan Lake", only to see that dream turn into a nightmare, when she crosses paths with a dark, sensuous rival who wants her role... Or does she even have a rival?? Swan Lake" is somewhat like "The Scottish Play" of ballet --some dancers have reportedly suffered nervous breakdowns while learning the part of the Swan Queen-- and the things that happen to Nina rip the covers off the depths of the dark places in her soul. Or is it all in her head?? Is her attempt to become both sides of the Swan Queen destroying her from the outside or from within?
The art design is fittingly monochrome, fitting the virginal White Swan and the seductive Black Swan -- a role traditionally danced by the same dancer. The soundtrack is largely a melange of Tchaikovsky's score and an original score that heavily evokes it. My only carp is that some of the sexual content got a bit much for my comfort level: I think a "less is more" approach would have made it more effective. ...but then again, we *are* seeing the inside of the mind of a girl as she confronts the darkness and weirdness she's been avoiding for so long, and even the most innocent can have some unpleasant stuff hidden away.