IMDb TOP #73 ... really?

Rating: 1/10 (22 April 2011)

I finally got to watch "The black swan" after hearing good comments about it for months. Once it ended, I came to IMDb to see if I was the only person in the planet who didn't like the movie. Well, it was a relief to see I wasn't alone. But it startled me that this movie is now 73 in the top 250 movies at IMDb! Well, this movie left me cold. Two hours passed watching a cliché ridden story about a crazy ballerina who somehow managed to get the role of Odette/Odille in Swan Lake at a presumably large American Ballet Company. I guess a ballerina slowly going crazy or destroying her personal life in search of perfection in her art is not a bad idea (watch the Red Shoes), but this is not the case of the movie. If I can define this movie, I would pick the lack of one thing: SUBTETLY. Oh well, I would also add CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Two things completely absent in the movie. Everything over here is told/narrated/musicalized/filmed in the worst in your-face way. It's so clear that the girl is crazy from the very beginning that what's the point on going on with her hallucinations? We know perfectly that what we are seeing is her deranged mind. No surprises, no turns here. The end is completely predictable though is utterly unbelievable. The acting? I haven't been impressed by Natalie Portman in other movies and this was no exception. I had seen enough lived and recorded ballet to have an idea how a prima ballerina looks and moves. Though Miss Portman underwent a difficult training for several months, it doesn't replace the years of hard training of a true dancer. If the effort on training your body is the best resource you have as an actor to pull the part, instead of facial expression and a thorough investigation of what being a dancer means, then Miss Portman deserves her Oscar. I personally prefer actors that may not be so fit physically but can communicate with their audiences with their eyes, facial expressions or language. I only saw a blank faced one expression Portman through the movie and a few shots of her arms trying to mimic a ballerina's moves. Mr. Cassel fares better with the little he was given to. Winona Ryder is properly over the top as the former prima ballerina dumped by Cassel. Ms. Kunis at least looks sexy and sympathetic in her brief role. Direction and cinematography: I know is hip and artsy to film as a 10 years old with an old camcorder, but don't you have the feeling that this is just becoming a tired way of trying very hard to be original when using such an old story thread as the one used here? I'll watch now The Red Shoes for a movie about ballet. And then I'll watch Psicosis for a thriller. And I'm sure I'll forget "The black swan" in a couple of days. It wasn't even interesting enough as to enter in my list of movies that other people love and that I love to hate.