A Beautiful Nightmare!

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2019)

Nina Sayers is a tragic heroine through and through. And by that I mean that besides that she possess a flaw that leads to her downfall, which she must accept with honour, we, the audience, shouldn't expect to be surprised by the ending; it's often kinda predictable. With that being said, we must know that Aronofsky's task is that of filling the movie with a sense of dread and macabre atmosphere in order to forebode the tragic ending, while pushing the envelope as much as he can in order to make everything seem original, and hence unexpected.
The first thing is actually what Darren Aronofsky excels at. And in Black Swan, Aronofsky created a nightmarish surrealistic ambiance; using some of the most effective, if not the most violent, graphic gory images he ever used in his movies, and utilizing the sound almost as perfect as he did in Requiem for a Dream, only this time not just to disturb, but also to scare and daunt. In doing so, Aronofsky went far beyond foreshadowing Nina's dreadful inevitable downfall, making us feel Nina's pain as if we became her; Aronofsky made my feathery skin crawls!
Alas, Black Swan's visual imagery sadly lacks creativity. Most of the symbolic imagery I felt that they are quite familiar, and that I had seen many times before. That said, the visceral and bold direction of Aronofsky made up for that with genuine intensity.
The vague and mysterious nature of the characters and their actions adds up to the uniqueness of the movie, especially as they don't tarnish the drama, nor reject the logic for the sake of surrealism. I enjoyed interpreting the characters' motives, actions, and even purposes and roles in the story. The way they are represented can feel a bit messy sometimes, though. I think that what made me believe that the movie is a bit convoluted for its own good, and that Aronofsky tried too hard to give us as many reasons as he could to persuade us that Nina deserves her tragic fate while Nina's "hamartia" is crystal clear from hundred miles away in a most play-like way.
The performances are all truly outstanding. As for Natalie Portman, she delivered what is indisputably her fantastic career's best performance; she was simply Perfect!
(8.5/10)