Unnecessarily Unpleasant

Rating: 5/10 (17 April 2019)

This has all the pieces of a special film but I can't help but think that it seriously missed the mark. I think it's trying too hard is what it comes down to. I enjoy subjectivity and feeling uneasy while watching something but there are too many lazy plot points to ignore. There are so many unnecessary little occurrences that are in the film for no other reason than to cause uneasiness. They don't move the story along and they don't add a tense layer to the movie, they simply make me not want to watch. The story, itself, is interesting but the movie is just unnecessarily unpleasant for too long. Portman and Kunis do well with their roles but Portman's character is far too annoying at times. I understand all of these visions she has are products of mental illness that is derived from her unusual home-life and uncompromising commitment to her work but a lot of the film just doesn't work for me. I'm a very big proponent of showing things instead of always saying them but Black Swan takes pieces of information that might have been better off implied and brazenly puts them on screen, often in a manner that comes off as cheap. I admire the idea behind the film but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.