After many a minute dies the swan...

Rating: 1/10 (30 August 2011)

Oh, my. This infuriatingly bad movie is really nothing more than a D-grade horror/slasher film tricked out with up-to-the-nanosecond, cooler-than-thou, indie-film camera-work and special effects, a Hollywood blockbuster budget, and art-house cinema pretensions. Director Aronofsky has assembled a group of talented actors, but saddled them with a script that's notable primarily for its slacker-mentality mediocrity. Since I'm not competent to judge the merits of the dancing on display here, I'll leave it to the balletomanes online to do so. But as a movie, "Black Swan" fails even to live up to the reasonable expectations that horror film buffs might have. There's nothing especially horrific, new, startling or shocking about the backstage bitchery the movie's characters indulge in, nor suspenseful about the end(s) to which they come. I suppose one could make a reasonable case for Portman having earned the Oscar for her role in this film... but, then again, what actress wouldn't pull out all the stops when handed a script that encourages her to chew the scenery, go mad, and carry on like Tallulah Bankhead on speed? The real mystery of this film, to me, is for exactly what audience Aronofsky intended it. Since it possesses neither wit, menace, suspense, sophistication or intelligence, "Black Swan," I conclude, was designed to appeal primarily to underage drug addicts. May they have the joy of it.