"Perfection is not just about control. It is also about letting go. Surprise yourself so you can surprise the audience. Transcendence. Very few have it in them"

Rating: 10/10 (19 January 2013)

It is not altogether surprising that Aronofsky pulled another masterpiece with Black Swan. After all, he is eminent for some of the top-rated movies of all times including Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler. Not so different from his other movies, Black Swan somewhat achieves a similar style that is somehow dark, gloomy, and mysterious with a large focus on the main character's development.
Aronofsky is known for bringing the movie to the screen from the main character's perspective. He does that this time with the black swan's main character: Nina. So thrilled about her next audition, Nina finds herself caught in the midst of an inner battle between her strive for perfection and the persistent urge to release herself from any means of control. The movie questions every aspect of perfection: what is perfection? Is it just about maintaining the control of every step we make so that we don't make mistakes? Or isn't it also about letting go and freeing one's self from any essence of control so that it can transcend and unleash its creativity. These are the main questions that the movie tries to demonstrate, and how striving for perfection can truly affect one's life. This is illustrated again from Nina's perspective and how attempting to perfect her role as the white/black swan affected her life in a significant manner.
Great performance by Natalie Portman. You can truly see the diversity of the role she played and how it progresses with the movie; so calm and innocent in the beginning and tense and paranoid by the end of the movie. It truly explains the whole life-cycle of the journey toward perfection; your emotions are cool in the beginning but it gets more agitated as you progress with the role until it enters your personal life and creates damages due to the accompanied pressure and tension.
Simply put, this is a beautiful movie that will make you attach yourself to the character and feel what she was going through. A must-watch!