You will be disappointed

Rating: 2/10 (9 February 2011)

Oh dear. Expecting greatness and achieving disappointment.
I have to ask - if this film hadn't received all the nominations it did, would there be so many good reviews? I seriously doubt it. We have been told by the media that this is a wonderful film, hence the Oscar nominations and, I suspect, hence all the positive hype (after all the people who 'know' about such things have said it's good, so we will appear ignorant if we think it is bad).
Well, let's not follow the herd. Let's make an educated and calculated assessment of the film ourselves.
The development of a character from pure and naive to someone who discovers their dark side is not an original idea, but if done right is interesting and emotionally gripping. The problem with this film is that Portman was obviously disturbed from the beginning, so the subsequent 'slide' into darkness wasn't very dramatic. The said 'slide' played out as Portman arguing with her mother and engaging in lesbian sex. Hardly earth shattering badness!! Tame really by today's standards and the suggestion that someone engaging in lesbian sex is embracing their dark side is clichéd and offensive. Oh, don't forget she used drugs, but these were slipped into her drink by Kunis, how badass is that? The hallucinations Portman had came with no sense of drama. She had a hallucination, realised it was a hallucination, and carried on.
Her disintegration could have been handled much better. This was really lazy film making. So many avenues could have been explored to show her emotional state, but obviously that would have required too much thought and effort. There was no need for the sex scene and the sexual overtones in the relationship with Cassel was stomach churning and clichéd.
Portman never once portrayed the Black Swan. At all times she appeared dominated and ready to burst into tears - with a twist of madness thrown in.
This movie is really not worth paying to see. A trip to the cinema isn't cheap these days and you will regret wasting your money.