I survived it! and LOVED it!

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2011)

Director Darren Aronofsky follows up his previous hit The Wrestler (2008) with another portrait of a troubled individual consumed by their taxing vocation – in this case ballet – that has also stirred and bedazzled the movie going public upon and well after its release, though of course Black Swan should be thought of as an entirely separate creation. It tells the story of sweet young Nina, a fiercely dedicated dancer who is determined to attain and successfully execute the lead part in her company's production of the well-known Swan Lake. It is a dual role, involving the characters of both the pure, kind-hearted White Swan as well as her vindictive, seductive twin the Black Swan. The former is for her a perfect fit, her being perfectly apt to do the steps correctly and having a natural innocence to give the right feeling to her dancing, but in attempts to embody the story's mischievous antagonists she always comes across as rigid. After quite a messy kafuffle, the eccentric lead choreographer ends up giving her the part despite her difficulty with the latter aspect, as he is convinced that some way may be found to awaken her darker side.
The plot, and indeed the general premise of ballet, do suggest that the film is a simple low-key drama appealing to a mostly female audience, but it is of course more prominently a fearlessly brutal psychological thriller, the intensity and enthrallment of which must be experienced to be believed. However, its aspects horror are, in summary, the details of Nina's turbulent transformation into the Black Swan character. This subject is, while of course very confronting, still quite strictly for the purposes of the show, and depicted always from her point of view, and only to the very closed-minded and hypersensitive will it seem distant and foreign as they are watching it unfold. This feat of Aranofsky's is remarkable, and made all the more effective by a wondrous performance from Natalie Portman in the main role. Her acting achievements are equalled by her beautiful co-star Mila Kunis, who is most spine-chilling and compelling as the fellow ballerina that Nina subconsciously transforms mentally into a neat little embodiment of whatever she needs to acquire or conquer to obtain her goal. Recognition is also deserved of the three other most important members of the cast: Vincent Cassel who does a fine job as Thomas Leroy,the choreographer; Barbara Hershey who plays Nina's mother, a typical matriarch who shares a Principal-Skinner-like relationship with her daughter; and finally Winona Ryder with her very raunchy turn as a miserable retired ballerina past her heyday, who used to be Leroy's "little princess".
I implore readers to ignore the overreacting cowards who say this film is artlessly disgusting, and rush to enjoy this extraordinary convergence of horror and character drama.