The Black Swan

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2011)

The uninitiated might find it odd for "ballet" and "psychological thriller" to describe the same film. I did when I first heard of The Black Swan, though the idea intrigued me. Much of the intrigue was due to the film's director, Darren Aronofsky director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and The Wrestler. With a basic knowledge of the competitive nature of ballet, these descriptors make more sense. After watching The Red Shoes recently, I was even more interested in seeing The Black Swan. I wanted to see how the two films compare.
Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, a dancer hoping to be awarded the lead role in a new production of Swan Lake. The director of the production, Thomas Leroy (played by Vincent Cassel), knows she has the precision needed to portray the white swan, but he unsure if she can let go and lose herself in the sensuality required for the evil twin, the black swan. Mila Kunis plays Lily, a new dancer in the company, who possesses all the qualities needed for the black swan. As the film progresses, the pressure on Nina increasingly builds. She is obsessed with dancing both parts perfectly and fears being replaced.
Lily is everything Nina isn't: free spirited and sexual. She is the only dancer not obsessed with perfection and procuring all the lead roles. When Thomas comments on how effortlessly she dances, one can sense Nina's envy. She has practiced for years striving to perfect every step, every move.
Thomas never holds back his criticism, even when it brings his dancers to tears. He plays them against each other. He will stop at nothing to get the performance he wants. He even uses sexual advances to get them in to the state of mind he feels is needed.
Nina still lives with her mother. She sleeps in the same room she likely slept in as a child. It is still decorated with pink, frilled blankets and stuffed animals. Her relationship with her mother, Erica (played by Barbara Hershey), would make even Oedipus worry. Erica is both overly familiar and controlling. She was once a dancer herself and is set on fulfilling her dreams through her daughter.
Ballet is an art that can be life consuming, physically taxing, and, in Nina's case, mentally detrimental. The more obsessed she gets with dancing perfectly as the black swan, the more she loses her mind. She get's paranoid. She has nightmares and hallucinations and can't differentiate between these and reality. No matter what happens, she is never satisfied. When she thinks she didn't get the lead role, she cries at the rejection. When she wins the role, she still cries because of the pressure. She is insecure, always hiding her nervous habits of biting her nails and scratching.
I admire Aronofsky mainly for his reputation. Of his films, all I've seen is The Black Swan and The Fountain. I have yet to watch Pi and Requiem for a Dream, his supposed best work. But, he has impressed me so far. His subject matter is always interesting and unique and he directed The Black Swan expertly. The story parallels aspects of Swan Lake wonderfully. It was skillfully photographed and its effects, especially those involving hallucinations, are quite stunning. And as Nina's mental state deteriorates, he causes the audience to feel just as confused as she is. Was this real? Was that a hallucination? Aronofsky doesn't let on until the very end.
The Black Swan's performances are all top notch. Portman handles the difficulties of her role extremely well including doing most of her own dancing. Kunis is an actress I've enjoyed since first seeing her in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (That's right. I've never seen That70s Show). It's nice she is getting more substantial, dramatic roles.
I don't think comparisons to The Red Shoes are entirely fair. While they are similarly themed films, they take much different approaches. The Black Swan revels in the darkness that The Red Shoes only hinted at comparatively. However, since I've watched both films so recently, comparisons were inevitable. Had I not seen The Red Shoes, I'm not sure I would have appreciated the dancing in The Black Swan. At the same time it left me expecting more. I suspect I'll gain a greater appreciation for The Black Swan when I watch it again and separate it from my thoughts of The Red Shoes.