brilliant, intense movie that seems to encourage incredibly pretentious reviews here

Rating: 9/10 (7 March 2011)

At the end of this movie I was about to turn to my girlfriend and say "that was intense" when she turned to me and said "that was intense." The movie, and especially the last, absolutely stunning sequence, is incredibly intense. Natalie Portman as a driven perfectionist is amazing, giving a performance more about nervous, tense looks and bottled up emotions than about dialogue. Barbara Hershey is also incredible as her mother, ostensibly supportive but suffused with terrifying jealousy.
The movie puts the viewer squarely in Portman's mind, and we have as much trouble as she does in understanding what is really happening and what is her vivid imagination.
I think this movie has a lot in common with Roman Polanski's Repulsion, although I saw the latter so long ago that I can't say more about it than that, except that if you like one I'd recommend watching the other as well.
I note an unusually large number of IMDb user reviews having a very pretentious tone to them. I understand why. At the end of the movie, I felt like I should have a lot to say about it, because it was such an intense experience, but I actually don't. And the reviews I've read here seem to be written by people who want to say something profound about the movie but instead just say kind of silly things. I think this movie is such a visceral experience that it is very difficult to talk about, but it is well worth watching.