A completely riveting and emotionally intense experience. Full of beauty and hauntingly atmospheric. Another Aronofsky masterpiece.

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2011)

Well that's done it. I didn't think it would be possible. The chances must be astronomical. Three Oscar winning films in a month! First 127 Hours and then The King's Speech and now Aronofsky's third cinematic masterpiece triumph in a row. Black Swan for me has overtaken The King's Speech to take the top spot. Aronofsky's Black Swan is cinema at it's most serious, creative like art full of rich beauty and swirling darkness. This is Aronofsky's best film so far for many reasons.
But first a brief synopsis. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) lives at home with her controlling domineering mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) who wants the "best" for her daughter as Nina is a professional ballerina dance. Her mum encourages and pushes her as she's an ex-dancer herself who gave up her career to bring up Nina supposedly as she says. Artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) decides to replace his prime ballerina Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder) for his production of "Swan Lake" where one ballerina will be chosen to be the Swan Queen and be the White Swan, a sign of beauty, virginity and fragility and the Black Swan representing darkness, strength and seductiveness. Nina gets the part. She is fine playing the White Swan, but finds it very hard to produce her other side. Leroy "helps" her by trying to seduce her and she pushes him away, signalling strength. Another ballerina Lily (Mila Kunis) supposedly befriends her, but throughout as Nina becomes infatuated with Leroy she becomes convinced that Lily is out to steal her part and get Leroy for herself. She tries to become the Swan Queen by pushing herself to the extreme as her life spirals out of control. She's starts becoming obsessed with being the perfect Swan Queen due to the fact she takes drugs and is controlled by her mother. She starts going insane.
We really get inside the character's head of Nina. Aronofsky uses surrealism for dark images of her mental breakdown along with cleverly using music and sound effects along with costumes and truly exquisite cinematography to signify both Nina's light (white) and dark side (black). As the white swan we see her struggle to please her mother and Leroy and gain confidence herself to believe she can fulfil the role of swan queen. At the same time she struggles with her virginity when Leroy asks her how many boyfriend's she's had and tells her to really transcend herself and immerse herself into the role of the black swan she has to feel herself. Her dark side comes out later as she defy's her mother, takes drugs and has sex with Lily. Aronofsky uses also to magnificent effect, special effects and makeup to unsettle the audience with Nina's state of mind as she turns into the black swan, like when her eyes turn red, or you see her actually turn into a black swan and dancing with her prince swan. Natalie Portman herself dances beautifully and is excellent, she moves fluidly and gracefully with aching beauty, which cleverly mirrors the creative cinematography of the different colours of white and black. The way Aronofsky himself has shot the film with hand-held camera and editing which in itself is fluid and graceful like Nina's dancing. Also the pacing of the film never flagged throughout and where lots of films feel the need to drag themselves out needlessly, Black Swan dosen't and still retains that in-depthness of exploration of the characters and their aspirations.
The performances are equally astounding. Natalie Portman who I have seen acting in a few films gives a performance I have never thought possible. It is indescribable really. It is absolutely astoundingly, positively sensational. She gives Nina such depth, you feel really the emotional intensity of what Nina is going through as reality and fantasy is distorted and reflections of both her personalities (cleverly jutxapositioned with the use of mirrors) comes out. Portman is actually quite terrifying at times as you hate her and care for her at the same time. The film played so much on my mind and reached me so deeply that I had to remember that the cinema I was in was the reality for a while. Portman deserves without a doubt best actress at the Oscars. Of course the other actors cannot be ignored. Vincent Cassel as Leroy is memorably sleazy and strict as the art director, Barbara Hershey is excellent in a harrowing role as Nina's mum and gives her character depth as well. Winona Ryder is utterly superb in her short scenes as Beth who is broken down realising she is at the end of her days. But the second best acting was Mila Kunis as Lily. She was quite literally amazing and gave clarity to her character and dominated her scenes with maturity I never thought possible. She was reasonable in The Book Of Eli and funny in the comedy Date Night but they weren't serious films. This is and she played well high of the expectations I expected of her.
So it comes down to it, Black Swan is Aronofsky's finest so far. He deserves an Oscar for best director as Portman does for best actress. But also the making of it is a triumph as well as it really taps into the audience's mind and explores the issue of mental deterioration incredibly well with it being sensitively handled and we feel we are experiencing Nina's journey with her. Everyone should see this, particularly those who like Aronofsky or have a taste of surrealism. This is cinema at it's finest. I would bet for me this will remain one of the best film's of the year. It will be exceptionally difficult for any other movies on hand this year to top Black Swan as it is truly remarkable in every sense of the word and deserves to be hailed as a cinematic classic for decades to come. Truly a sensational masterpiece of our time.