Haunting Story of Psychological Breakdown

Rating: 9/10 (15 April 2011)

Black Swan is one of the best psychological dramas in recent memory. It combines good acting, characterization, metaphor, and even some well placed CGI to convey a ballerina's psychological collapse under the stress of a starring role. Although it is not an entirely original story, it is still a stunning work of art.
The acting is the bedrock of the film, with Natalie Portman earning her Oscar for Best Actress. She conveys her character's vulnerability and inner rage equally well. Although the past month has been filled with debate over how much she danced in the film, this really misses the point. (It was an acting, not a choreography award after all.) This will go down as one of Portman's greatest roles.
The supporting cast is equally good. Barbara Hershey is excellent as Portman's possessive control freak mother. Mila Kunis expands beyond her usual comic performances as Portman's rival / object of desire, the black swan to her white swan. Even though she has a limited role, Winona Ryder does well as an aging ballerina whose star gives way to Portman's- eerily paralleling the decline of Ryder's career as an ingénue. Ryder is admirably settling into a new role as a character actor.
Particularly interesting is Aronofsky's use of CGI to embody Portman's mental breakdown. The film shows that computer graphics are not necessarily the stuff of Transformers movies, as they let the audience see the character's hallucinations.
The only reason this review is a nine rather than a ten is that it seems like old territory for Darren Aronofsky. All of his films deal with obsession in some shape or form, ranging from addiction to performance. In particular, the climax seems to borrow heavily from Aronofsky's previous film, The Wrestler, in particular its shooting style.