An assault on the senses

Rating: 2/10 (28 December 2010)

I saw Black Swan over the Christmas weekend and I would not recommend it. There are some good qualities and the acting is terrific, but the movie itself is just too much. Too chaotic and ultimately too bizarre to take seriously.
First to state what may not be obvious, to classify it in my opinion this is a horror movie more than any other genre. I generally like horror and suspense movies, and I've seen this film's style compared favorably to David Lynch who I'm also a fan of, but Black Swan takes things to an extreme. The object of the plot (*SPOILER*) seems to be following a ballet dancer's (Natalie Portman) descent into madness, and to show this from her perspective. At first the small things which happen to her are creepy and effective, but they start to increase and get much more violent and graphic. Eventually it becomes a futile exercise in sickening images and startling scares.
I remember thinking during the movie that I couldn't wait for it to end so I wouldn't have to submit to any more bizarre shocking imagery. I almost walked out in fact. But one of the positive things about the film was that the story was engrossing and riveting, and you couldn't help but want to know what happened to the dancer in the end. Not really in a compelling way, but more like seeing the result of a car crash and not being able to look away. The other major positive was the acting. All the major players were very effective, in particular Natalie Portman who has a very difficult role to portray this woman as she becomes gradually more unhinged, all the while dancing beautiful ballet.
But getting back to my main point, the style of the movie is quite brutal, assaulting the viewer with unpleasant images and shocks. After a while Shakespeare's phrase "full of sound and fury and signifying nothing" came to mind. The movie was in a word disturbing, and not in a good way. I wouldn't see it again. If acting honors are handed out for Black Swan they would be deserved, but that doesn't redeem it as a movie.