Great story about a story

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2010)

This movie has 2 outstanding, almost perfect elements: the poster (it has a bit of "hauntingly beautiful" to it) and the idea. And while the storytelling is not perfect it does deliver and near the ending all it has been built up bursts in a crescendo of action and emotion. While most of the movie Natalie Portman acts like she is made of wood, you know like in Star Wars, this time it actually fits as she is supposed to be somewhat stiff and just mimicking emotions. However her transformation into the black swan at the end really surprised me and leads me to think she can actually act. And pretty well too.
Now jumping on to the supernatural elements some of them seem very well in place like an unexplained rash and bleeding of fingers, through impressions of seeing a familiar face on the street, to hallucinations while on drugs and an actual transformation into a black swan on stage some others like hallucinations in the hospital and before the show could have been handled subtler or more masterfully. For example in the cabin as I didn't understand what exactly was happening anymore it ruined immersion and made me not care anymore. Fortunately the beautiful performance follows that rescues and finally manages to create a nearly perfect ending.
However, there is one fault I find in it... the fact that watching the trailer or reading a two-line review basically renders the first hour of the movie useless, it adds surprisingly little. Fortunately it didn't get actually boring.