What's the fuss about? Possible spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (8 October 2011)

I finally caught this today, and I really don't see the fuss. As full disclosure, I didn't see any of the other Best Actress movies, so I cannot say who deserved to win, but I was incredibly underwhelmed by NP's performance. Natalie's expressions were Stressed and More Stressed. Oh, and Paranoid. Not a lot of range in this. With all the accolades, I was expecting to be blown away. I felt like I was watching NP play an obsessed (and mentally-ill) ballerina. Portman came off as very aware of this being an Oscar-bait role, and thus the performance never seemed organic. As note: MAJOR props to the special effects team. I enjoyed Nina's visual transformation near the climax from the White Swan features to the Black Swan.
As for the story, I expected more. It was dark, but based on reviews, I expected something more disturbing and maybe unusual? I did turn away from certain parts, such as the breaking legs and bloody feet scenes as things like that make me queasy. Based on my one viewing, it seemed to be a study on mental illness. Shades of Fight Club and Memento(both are superior), but without soul and genuine intrigue. I don't mind a movie left to the viewer's interpretation, but this movie made sure everything was up in the air. This movie asked for a lot of assumptions. We never saw Beth (Winona Ryder) dance. So it's unclear why (aside from being the prima) Nina idolizes her. We never see the other ladies audition, so Nina winning the part could really be a result of the director's creepy fixation on her than of talent. We don't see what makes Thomas' "visceral" Swan Lake so unique, in terms of how much of the actual performance we see. All we're watching is Nina's descent into further madness, which is fine, but I expected the climax to consume more of the run-time. I don't need anything spelled out, but the way the movie left things felt obnoxious and lazy. On the other hand, could all the light/dark/black/white have been more obvious? I've never seen Swan Lake, but based on what I've read, this was a perverted interpretation. The gratuitous sex scenes were cheap (Monster's Ball cheap) and did not move the plot. Even Portman commented on how the scene w/Kunis was how you get people in the theater. The old train pervert served no purpose.I was hoping the movie would show appreciation for ballet, but it didn't, and I'm not a dancer. 127 Hours showed both the wonders and the dangers of nature, for example. The dream sequence in Oklahoma was a better tribute to ballet. Then again, two characters did talk us through the storyline of Swan Lake, so I guess that should have been a clue that we wouldn't "see" it.
Another thing that bothered me was we're to believe that Nina is obsessed about being the Swan, but she doesn't seem obsessive about anything else. Not asking for much, but something as simple as having to brush her hair w/100 strokes every night or some OCD-type habit. Don't think the vomiting applies b/c I think that was stress- related. I guess self-mutilation would work, as stated earlier, anything with blood or if I felt blood/peeling skin/etc coming, I looked away. Plus, this was not done in the open, so I feel they could have added something that other characters saw. The couple of "mean girl" ballerinas in the beginning of the film seemed like perfect candidates to hone in on some quirk of Nina's that would point to her problem. How is it that her obsessiveness is so contained? If gratuitous sex could be added, then surely, Aronofsky could have developed Nina more.
Mila Kunis' character wasn't as fleshed out as I expected which leads me to believe that Nina imagined her. I believe the movie was about Nina's disturbed psyche brought on by her repressed childhood/adulthood and it culminated into her killing herself. She had a mom that was trying to live through her and she had that internal struggle of not being good enough in a highly competitive profession.
Another review pointed it out, but what in the world was with the mother's drawings? It was weird seeing them the first time, but when we see them again, they're animated? Unless I blinked, Nina never brought them up to her mother. Are we to believe that with at least 40 drawings in that room, Nina has never seen them? Really?
As a superficial observation, Natalie Portman is only 30, but looked a lot older. I get the reasons for her weight loss, but visually, it did her no favors and she came across quite harsh on screen. NOT attacking Natalie, but she looked no younger than Winona which made it somewhat unbelievable that Nina's supposedly this great dancer, but has yet to have a leading role at her age. I can't remember if they said how old she was, but anything other than 29/30 is not believable. Certainly not at a peak age which I hear is early 20s.
The ending was a letdown. When Nina said "I felt it...It was perfect...That was perfect." (complete with a smile), my ears actually heard " All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." So cheesy. Probably won't watch again as it didn't live up to the hype. Mulholland Drive might be a better movie. In fact, Summer Glau as a tortured ballerina dancing 'Giselle' ('Waiting in the Wings' episode of Angel) exhibited more emotion, intrigue, and coherency.