Absorbing and Captivatingly Brilliant

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2019)

2 January 2011. Perhaps the best movie of 2010, this psychological drama set in the ballet milieu presents the audience with a brilliant, striking, haunting and intense personal drama of one female ballerina's attempt to be the lead in Swan Lake. Natalie Portman, as Nina, must contend with her own inhibitions and fears as the audience must confront their own prejudices and bias regarding movie character stereotypes. In many ways, Nina's journey parallels many of our own fears and imagined monsters. With only three apparent possible editing or directorial alternatives (the selection of the female lead and the biting of the mouth timing, the shot selection for the perceptual view of the rehearsing (unlike Chorus Line), and the murder scene that didn't seem to quite have the clarity of character persona transformation and credibility), this amazing personal almost mature David Lynch-like presentation makes Blawk Swan a voyage of discovery and layered emotional and psychological density the most absorbing, powerful movie of the year.