Best Film of 2011?

Rating: 10/10 (10 June 2012)

The first time I watched this film I didn't really know a whole lot about it, I just knew that Natalie Portman won an Oscar for her performance and that the film was set in the ballet world. Being a fairly big fan of Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman I thought you know what even if it was a ballet film I'll give it a chance it might just surprise me and when the credits started rolling I was physically shaking from how amazing and breathtaking this film was. I'm not going to go into great detail on the plot (as you can read the summary on this page) but the film follows Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) a ballet dancer who has just won the role of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake however the role starts to take over her and she begins to lose her mind and she starts to have strong hallucinations which include seeing herself in other people, this is when the film stops being a ballet film and becomes a seriously intense psychological thriller. I should point out this is not a film for everyone as there is a lot of sexual content, disturbing scenes and straight up horror that may leave some viewers with a couple sleepless nights but nothing too troubling as you will be so invested in the story it probably won't bother you. The performances in this film are brilliant the lead of which is Natalie Portman who gives the best performance that I have ever seen an actor give and fully deserved her clean sweep of best actress awards. The supporting actors also stepped up with Mila Kunis playing Natalie's alter ego in the film and giving another Oscar worthy performance. Other standout performances include; Vincent Cassell, Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey. As far direction goes I strongly believe that Darren Aronofsky should have won the Oscar ahead of Tom Hooper but hey you can't have them all. The way Darren shot the film was astounding however I have heard people complaining regarding the sex scenes and the scares but without them the film would have felt restricted and you wouldn't feel the mental insecurity that Nina is suffering so I compliment Aronofsky for having the balls to go there. Overall this is probably one of if not the best film I have ever been lucky enough to watch and I highly recommend to anyone who feels they have the mental strength to cope with it.