Commands your every bit of attention.

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2011)

Black Swan is the type of film most moviegoers won't want to see until they hear from a select few how good it really is. On the surface, it appears to be a simple overwrought, art-house wannabe that strains to be important and ends up being self-aware and arrogant. Oh, how people can be wrong.
Everything you may think this film is, it very well may not be. From the opening sequence, a beautifully crafted, unbroken shot of a young woman and man dancing the White Swan from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Darren Aronofsky's bold and insatiable tale never lets the audience's attention go. This is not simply a story about the pressures of professional ballerinas and their tendency to get caught up in their work. This is a thrilling, engaging psychological drama that plays with POV and omniscient narrator. We don't know what is happening because Nina Sayers doesn't.
So much can be said about this film, what it represents and how those themes are addressed. Yet, perhaps the best way to review this film is to simply try to encourage potential viewers to leave their logic and reason at home and try to get wrapped up in this story through its bold acting and wildly arresting visuals. Natalie Portman is the odds-on favorite to win the Best Actress Oscar next month and though I haven't seen the other potential nominee's work, I can certainly see why she might. Her screen presence is astounding; very few actresses can convey so many different emotions and feelings at once. She begins as an innocent, child-like dancer completely dominated by her mother (Barbara Hershey) and the theater director (Vincent Cassel). Both demand the very best of her and push until, they hope, she performs with no restraint. This pressure pushes Nina to the brink, and to watch her journey there is the true aspiration of this film with Portman boldly leading the way in a style all her own. Supporting her are Hershey doing a nice, subtle job as the ex-ballerina now attempting to find success through her daughter, Cassel as the sexually domineering director who uses sex and other forms of seduction to get the best of his performers, and Mila Kunis in yet another great supporting role that hopefully pushes her through into the realm of lead actress. Playing the dichotomy of Nina, Lily is a free-spirited, charming and loose dancer not so concerned about success as living. The interaction between these two is mesmerizing.
Aronofsky has been known for most of his career has a visual master. Films like Requiem For a Dream, The Fountain and The Wrestler all dealt with harsh imagery that stays with the audience after the film ends and Black Swan is no different; it might be his best work yet. Shot in the same style as The Wrestler with a lot of extreme closeups, grainy quality and hand-held camera work, Aronofsky gives the film an off-kilter feeling that is all the more stunning and surprising at the climax. I could continue trying to conjure up words to describe the awesome and enthralling power this film has, but that would be futile. Black Swan is a dazzling, incredibly provocative and mind-bending tale with powerful performances, glorious sets, vividly dark cinematography and breathless direction that brings it all to its rightful conclusion. Hopefully the success of this film ensures Aronofsky for years to come; he is a bright spot amidst the darkness that enshrouds American cinema today.