Haloween Lake

Rating: 3/10 (20 December 2010)

Aranofsky provides us with the first 'slasher/drug' ballet movie. Unique, yes!. Meaningful, no! Obviously still rooted in his drug fuelled visions from Requiem for a Dream, the story follows young Nina as she applies herself in trying to achieve the lifetime ambition of being the Swan Princess in a new version of Swan Lake. An arch rival rears her ugly head and goes about drugging Nina and getting her drunk like on a date rape. To make matters worse Nina 'self harms' throughout the movie just to add salt to the wound. Her mother, an ex ballet dancer of some note seems to hold a deep inner grudge against her daughter simply for 'having her' in the first place. She plays a part that Bette Davis would have relished as the evil mother who pretends to carebut does she? Every character including her choreographer has an evil core. We are meant to see this both in reality and/or through Nina's somewhat warped mind as her world spins out of control. One moment she has scars, the next moment they are gone. Her big toe nail is split in half, hours later she is on point spinning around like a battery operated spinning top. Her nails are cut with ensuing blood, both by her mother and herself on separate occasions and the healing process is remarkable. The line between what we are meant to believe and what is in her head are as clear as mud. This girl has deep rooted problems. At this point one has to put all of the blame on the pressure her mother has put her under to be the star turn at this American ballet company. Sex rears its' head time and time again as Nina is seduced firstly by the choreographer and then by her arch rival. Her choreographer suggests that she 'plays with herself' as tonight's homework in preparation for playing the dark half of the swan. Nina masturbates at home, only to find her that her mother has been asleep in the chair next to her bed throughout this ridiculous scene, only put in the movie to cheaply sell the new naughty Natalie to her male admirers. Having won the coveted role of Swan Princess, Nina is asked to go for a drink with her arch rival who then slips her a drug cocktail, gets her hammered and then 'feels her up' on the way home in the cab. At this point you have to remember that Nina has been trying for an awfully long time to achieve this once in a lifetime roleSO..why oh why would she go out with someone she does not trust, see her drink tampered with, have this fact confirmed by her arch rival and still drink it-and most incredibly ask if the affects only last for two hours. Gullible or what? ....and all only hours before her appearance in front of a sold out house to see her perform Swan Lake. On this basis she should not be aloud into the Ballet school, let alone perform as it's star turn. Where were we? Once home, we move into a trademark Aranofsky drug fused moment as Nina dreams of making passionate hot love to her rival-or did she? Every piece of this so called ballet thriller/killer ride is littered with screen moments we have seen many times before. It cannot be stated enough to say that the beautiful music that is 'Swan lake' totally elevates the final scene of this very lightweight movie. As the music soars along with Nina as she is lifted into the air and dropped by her male lead, we hear him utter those immortal words "what the f..k". If the substance of the movie had been half as good as the music then we may have had a performance worthy of note. Unfortunately in this case we do not. The press release reads " Natalie Portman spent 12 months preparing for this role, having been taught ballet from the age of 4 until she was 12". Wow. That is so impressive. This reminds me of another dreadful ballet move made by the late Robert Altman. That was really bad, but this? Oscar pay day, just around the corner for this Swan dive.