Dark Subconsciousness

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2010)

A dark, mysterious roller-coaster of a thriller into an awakening of a subconscious.
On the surface its about ballet and the quest for perfection. Portman's character is granted the swan queen part which encompasses both the white swan and the black swan roles. She is a marvel technically and can fully encompass the white swan part but she can't perfect the black swan part which requires not only technical proficiency but a transcendence from who she is. At her level more than technical mastery is needed but a certain essence of the spirit is necessary to perfect the artistry. She is the innocent, virginal white part but she lacks a dark passion which must be emoted in order to perfect the black part. This inner dark side lies dormant in Portman's character as it would in most innocent, sheltered youths. Influences from her teacher and her look alike competitor and the queer controlling relationship with her mother help her unleash various dark and indulgent emotions such as jealousy, anger, pride, rebellion and lust. The rapidity at which these perhaps novel emotions are felt, along with the obvious pressures to perfect such a performance, and the physicality of grueling ballet training all take us on a journey into a slowly developed spiraling madness of Nina's repressed innermost mind. The filmmaker created an intimate point of view portrait. We are transported into Nina's awakening of her dark subconscious soul. And we follow Nina on her path of madness by slowly stepping out of reality into a hallucinatory decadence that will lead to the glory of perfection or a fatal destruction.
The swan queen role of the black and white swans' is a wonderful metaphor for the duality of humanity.
A profoundly interesting psychological character study uniquely blended with artsy horroresque intensity that is so well made that we become totally absorbed into it.