Black Swan is not a movie it is a flawless performance ingeniously captured on film.

Rating: 10/10 (21 May 2012)

This movie deserves two thumbs up, ten out of ten stars and a standing ovation. This is a work of art driven by the exploration of the human as a whole, mentally and physically, that will make you rise to the edge of your seat as you not only question yourself and reality but it will also cause you to feel a spectrum of emotions: sadness, hope, confusion all at once. This movie has the power to bring its viewers to tears because it can trap one in deep thought and leave them in admiration of the beauty and art of film, ballet, and the human, both body and mind.
Natalie Portman puts on the performance of her career. Her character Nina Sayers is delicately stitched together into what can be summed up as a true virgin: pure, innocent, naïve, and beautiful. Nina is the epitome of a hard worker. Nina will do whatever it takes to achieve perfection and is more than willing to put her love of ballet before her own wellbeing. The only thing Nina loves more than reaching perfection in ballet is her mother. This love has forged the way for what is truly an unhealthy relationship between a young, confused, and innocent adult and her overbearingly, obsessive, and protective mother.
Nina is like a helpless child at home thus making her interactions with others somewhat awkward. Nina's mother has always protected her and now more than ever, she longs to break through this protective barrier and live and experience life for the first time as an independent adult. Her mother catches on to this and she will stop at nothing to prevent it.
There are many reasons as to why Nina's mother is so overly protective. The one that drives the others is that when Nina's mother was around her age she had freedom. Through an unrevealed series of events, this freedom led to Nina's conception. Because of this, Nina's mother who at the time was a renowned ballet dancer, had to give up her dreams and aspirations to take care of her. This caused her to promise herself that she would never let her daughter make the same mistakes in life that she did. If she were to allow Nina to make a mistake that would put her career in jeopardy, she would no longer be able to live vicariously through her career. In her eyes, it would be a failure on her part.
Nina on the other hand does not see things in the same fashion. She merely thinks that her mom is jealous of her and is willing to do anything to prevent her from succeeding through achieving perfection. This becomes a form of paranoia in Nina's life that is not only present in her personal relationship with her mother but also in her daily life and relationships. This paranoia of sorts directly affects her work as she attempts to transform herself into the role of her dreams: Swan Queen. This role poetically defines Nina because it incorporates both the White Swan and the Black Sawn. Because of Nina's odd childhood and upbringings, she is more than prepared for the role of the White Swan. She already lives her life as the White Swan: pure, innocent, naïve, and beautiful. The challenge arises when she finds out that being just the White Swan is not good enough. She must become the Black Swan. In order to accomplish this she must first discover the Black Swan within and therefore discover a darker side of herself. This discovery is the only way for Nina to truly achieve perfection as the Swan Queen. As the audience, we get to see the development of the darker side of the human mind.
Nina spends the duration of the movie embracing The Black Swan in her life in fragments. These fragments are different aspects of her life including self-exploration, sexual confusion and desire, interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, desire for freedom and for perfection, the gain and loss of innocence, and the gain and loss of mental stability and or reality. These aspects are also different reoccurring themes in the movie. As the movie progresses these fragments become sections or parts that when finally pieced together form Nina. Nina's completion occurs at the end during what may be her final performance ever in which she preforms flawlessly as both the White Swan and the Black Swan thus encapsulating and embodying them into one, making Nina the perfect Swan Queen.