Unpleasant without a cause

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2011)

Black Swan is almost the same as 'Requiem for a Dream (2000)', another of Darren Aronofsky's work.
We saw the characters in 'Requiem for a Dream' slowly spiraling downwards because of their heroine addiction.
Black Swan tells the story of a girl spiraling down because she is obsessed.
I really 'liked' Requiem for a Dream, drug addiction really deserves the 'unpleasant' card to be played, and because the spiral is so slow, we the audience, keep hoping everything still might turn out fine. Drugs really work on a persons instincts (like it or not, people are still fundamentally governed by their instincts), that's why the 'artistic' unpleasantness works so well in Requiem for a Dream, we understand and feel how the characters are driven to full-fill their 'instincts', the need to get drugs again.
However, this doesn't work so well when showing, and visualizing, an obsessed girl in Black Swan. It was just... very very unpleasant. Obsession is not an instinct, it's a self-taught (or indoctrinated) defect (in the same manner as people can be religious, or start stalking someone).
I had a hard time relating to Natalie Portman's character. I'm a reasoning man, and I can't for the life of me fathom being so obsessed without alarm bells ringing in my head. She doesn't have any alarm bells whatsoever, even when it's all too clear (even to her!) she's being schizophrenic. I know it is my own fault that I don't like this movie, I can't relate to nor do I respect unreasoning people. That leaves only pity. So out of pity I give this movie 6 points out of 10.