It is all about Natalie Portman, is it not?

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2010)

A beautiful actress could decide a movie. Sounds exaggerating? Then, you shall see "Black Swan", the 2010 thriller about a ballet dancer, and then check how affirmative the statement could be.
Natalie Portman is amazing. But I bet she, instead of the technique reflected or emotion revealed by the movie, became the reason why so many people rated the movie almost 9 out of 10. For me, cinematography and editing were actually more wonderful, and these are quite independent from how Natalie Portman was doing. But I know other audiences will not separate Natalie Portman from the movie. They loved her and then they forgot viewing the movie as a whole.
I just felt there was not anything really so special about the movie. The struggle between dual persona, the absent father (uh...clichés, clichés...), and the lesbian sex scenes, though "strong" enough, have already been repeated in a lot of movies else. Again still, when I was forced to see them, I still couldn't help but wonder why they have to be a part. Or, have we got so used to them that movie makers tend to believe that we cannot live without them any longer? Oh, if that's the case, why were we moved to tears by a movie like "Forest Gump"? Why did we feel so much saved by a movie like "Shawshank Redemption"? Why were we so intoxicated by the eloquent "Shakespeare in Love" and so much thrilled by the music in "Dancer in the Dark"? None of these masterpieces took pride in shedding blood or semen...(forgive me), but they did open our hearts and lived rent-free there...
Another approach to leave a good impression is to be truly intelligent, like Charlie Koffman. He had a good idea of analyzing human being's brain, and then he was being honest enough to share the "process": how he did it, what he did, and what could be the consequences...But Darren Aronofsky was not that patient or scientific. His cinematographer and editor were being kind enough to sew pieces of impulse into a complete story that made sense. Without them, I wonder what the movie would look like...a collection of horror pictures? It is totally agreeable if Natalie Portman got nominated or even awarded because of "Black Swan". Her performance was truly impressive. It is not exaggerating to state that she has made another breakthrough in her career. But I will hardly consent to any idea of crowning "Black Swan" the best picture or best directing, for it pretended to be new when it was totally old, indeed trivial when it tried to be big. It is not the first time for me to see a young perfectionist struggling with the imperfection engendered by her natural inclination, her absence of father, her depressing self-discipline...let alone when here lives one.