White Jekyll to Black Hyde

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2011)

BLACK SWAN is a clinical examination of psychosis vs borderline personality dichotomy and as such it succeeds well. It is not unusual for director Darren Aronofsky to plunge into controversial subject matter ('Requiem for a Dream', 'The Wrestler', 'Pi', 'The Fountain') but his mastery of a new zone of cinematic investigation of mental illness based on a story by Andrés Heinz who also wrote the screenplay with Mark Heyman and John McLaughlin is his most daring work yet. BLACK SWAN is as disturbing a film to watch as it is a richly rewarding testament to storytelling based on age-old themes.
The setting is a ballet company preparing a new version of the familiar Petipa and Ivanov choreography of the ballet Swan Lake, a story based on Russian folktales about a young girl transformed into a white swan ('Odette') and the darker malevolent black swan ('Odile') who under spells from the evil Rothbart vie for the love of Prince Siegfried. The choreographer Thomas (Vincent Cassel) must retire the reigning white swan queen (Winona Ryder) because of her age and has tryouts for a new swan queen. The shy, introverted, frightened but excellent dancer Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) seems perfect for Thomas' new concept of the white swan, but she lacks the visceral and sensual passion for the extension of the role as the black swan. Nina is the daughter of a frustrated ex-ballerina Erica Sayers (Barbara Hershey) who gave birth to Nina and missed out on becoming a prima ballerina. Erica is controlling and forces Nina into rigorous training and discipline so that Nina will become the star Erica failed to realize. Nina devotes her life to ballet, participates in behaviors such as self mutilation that suggest she is an unstable personality. Thomas continues to attempt to bring out Nina's passionate personality but the attempts become Nina's obsessive delusions regarding her fear of being unable to be perfect: she imagines all manner of events and body changes, finding that her only friend Lily (Mila Kunis) leads her into an even more distorted lifestyle - or does she... The manner in which Nina transforms herself into the black swan is breathtaking and the climax of the film leaves the audience wondering about the real ending versus another version of Nina's broken mind.
The cast is excellent, with Natalie Portman (who trained into her own balletic role so that she could perform Odette/Odile credibly) delivering a brilliant performance as the fragile, vulnerable, mentally disturbed Nina. Her partner in the ballet, David, dancing the role of the Prince, is Benjamin Millepied - a remarkably magnetic actor/dancer with whom Portman is now engaged and pregnant. Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey raise their characters to an even higher level than the script - wholly and terrifyingly credible. At times Aronofsky could have used some restraint in showing the repeated delusions of Nina's broken mind and the impact would have been a bit more subtle. Mathew Libatique provides elegant cinematography and Clint Mansell reinterprets the Tchaikovsky score - sometimes it works, other times it is maddenly warped: the most successful plagiarism is in the piano-only reduction during the credits. But the overall impact at film's end is a stunning work and a tribute to the talent of Natalie Portman.
Grady Harp