If this were my Black Swan, I'd have it put down

Rating: 3/10 (19 January 2011)

A great cast put in great performances in a flawed and ultimately pointless film.
MINOR SPOILERS ahead.
Suspension of disbelief is a requirement of the movies, but you can't suspend your disbelief when it relates to the core of the central character. This film purports to be a descent into madness, but Nina (Natalie Portman in fine form) is clearly nuts right from the beginning, inherited from a mother (Barbara Hershey) who makes you think of the shower in the Bates Motel.
So the madness elevator has clearly hit the sub-basement sometime before the opening credits. And this is where the disbelief sets in: someone so clearly a pork pie short of a picnic simply would not get to play the prima donna role. Others have pointed out that any main role in Swan Lake will be danced by two or three dancers rather than one headlined figure, so the premise of competition driving Natalie nuts goes out of the window as well.
And the movie is, frankly, vulgar: everything is telegraphed in an obvious and clumsy way. No intellectual input is required from the audience - everything is spoonfed one morsel at a time. For example, Mia Kunis (who is the best thing in this) has black wings tattooed on her back - subtle? Maybe not. And when Nina finally gets in touch with her dark side, her eyes go yellow (like Michael Jackson in 'Thriller' - which featured more expressive dancing).
The sex scenes are unnecessary - they add nothing to the film because, although having an orgasm is supposed to give Nina a brilliance that has thus far eluded her in dancing the seductive Black Swan role, we do not see any difference.
There are horror elements which aren't scary because you know they aren't real (did I mention Nina is nuts from day one?), and visceral moments in the film that are just stomach-churningly unpleasant to anyone not raised on torture-porn.
The climax is so unlikely as to be laughable.
Overall a sad waste of talent.