Well-made pretension

Rating: 1/10 (24 May 2011)

This is one of the worst movies I have seen in many years. I know that it has been hailed by many as daring and original and artistic. However, in reality it is monotonous, dreary, and populated by single-dimensional caricatures who play the same part in every scene.
Portman won the Oscar® for her performance, and much was made of her dancing, both the fact that she trained for more than a year and also that her stunt double didn't get any credit. Well, as someone who has spent forty years going to the ballet, and as someone married to a ballet dancer, I can state that this movie has some of the worst ballet dancing ever recorded in a movie.
Finally, all the metaphors in this failed movie are trite, and some quite laughable. For instance, the appearance of actual feathers, at least in the mind of the crazed black swan, is one of the oldest lines in reviews of "Swan Lake:" "She was so convincing you could actually see the feathers" is a typical review line that I've read many times over the years.
In this case, I didn't need to see the feathers, and I didn't need to see the movie.
If you want to see a great ballet movie about a ballerina going mad as art and reality follow parallel paths, rent the timeless classic "The Red Shoes." That too won awards, but it was a great movie, and the dancing is mesmerizing.
This effort is just well-made pretension.