Good vs Evil

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2010)

A psychological thriller about a ballet dancer's battle with innocence, the end of guarding that innocence, and rival competition. The director encompasses this three-dimensional trait into one gifted, beautifully poised lady named Nina, played by Natalie Portman, whose solo life is domiciled with her smothering and controlling mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey. They shared one thing in common, ballet. This tradition from mother to child persist without resistance. Nina soar above her mother's failed career. One shocking look into Erica's grimy face, said washout, disappointment and collapse in ones hope for success. Unfortunately dance wasn't the only continuity, so was schizophrenia. Her inner world was suppressed with demons and dark impulses, a cruse Nina learned to live with but never shared. Her strive toward perfection in her ballet and her diet, clearly steered her toward anorexia. For the sake of the movie title, The director, Darren Aronofsky, chose not to place the spotlight on Nina's beautiful swan like movements but, on Nina's downward spiral descent into deep psychosis.
The white swan is exquisite, sweet, and pure and the black swan dark, mystical, and bewitching. In order to be the Swan Queen, Natalie Portman had to be all of these characters. The artistic dance director, Thomas, played by Vincent Cassel, knows Nina is the white swan and must push her to become the black swan. In order to accomplish this, Thomas suggests she forget about being perfect. Perfection is not about control, you must try to surprise yourself and the audience. This order undoubtedly forces her to unlock the trapped demons into her world, an experience she has so, so dreaded.
The Director's target to give birth to the evil swan was right on point. Natalie skillful acting abilities switching from good to bad-- friendly to hostile and from naive to worldly was just incredible. She laid her emotions out there, haunting us with spontaneous hallucination and phantom sensations. Our vision became blurry with her vision. We could no longer discriminate between real and imagined experiences. This unique concept, To see what a schizophrenic sees, gave insight to her unintentional altered perception. The evil twin, the evil force was pulling her, pulling me.
The music was simply magnificent and speaks for itself, Tchaikovsky's 'The Swan'. The music score enhanced by Clint Mansell, uses the dark tones to keep us in tune with the delusions surrounding her virtual reality of violence. It works extraordinarily well throughout the entire movie. As with many others, Tchaikovsky's music has been part of my memory since attending the symphony during grade school, listening to CDs, and movie scores past and present. The whole musical affair is clearly meant to separate good and evil and believe me it struck the right note.
Black Swan is intriguing and captivating. I promise, you will not be disappointed, perhaps a little confused. Hopefully, it will arouse your curiosity to listen to its music or see a real ballet performance or perhaps watch 'The Turning Point' where real ballet dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Leslie Browne perform effortlessly. If it does that, and not focus on weight loss or self-destruction, then we all win and can say, "It was perfect."