Black Swan, clichéd, and too long

Rating: 4/10 (8 April 2011)

Hello film fanatics,
I must start by saying, this film had great camera work, excellent acting, by Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, and especially Barbara Hershey, for playing a controlling psychotic mother.
With this being said the reason for my low rating is because it kind of drags on and on, yes I understand that Portman's character obviously has some issues with her marbles upstairs, mainly because of her controlling mother. And this is why this film didn't work for me. This kind of story has been done to death, from films such as Hitchcock's Psycho with the whole mother/Norman personality, David Lynch's Mullholland Dr. having the fake reality and also lesbian scenes (Which was filmed more elegant by Lynch than the director of this film.) Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the whole crazy family thing going on, and Raising Cain with John Lithgow which is another Psycho style film in itself.
Why I'm mentioning these films,well it's because films like these they all have one thing in common,and that's the whole parental conditioning, also like Mullholland Dr.,the whole fake world kind of thing, through some kind of everyday environmental pressures coming from society.
In this film I found it had little hints from films like that. I understand that taking great ideas from another film that you love, is a normal thing, and kind of hat's off to all the wonderful films from the past, but like I've said I'm just so bored of this kind of story, that's all. I really don't want to see another psychological crazy mental breakdown film again, we have enough already. And that's why I rated this film the way I did.
Also the whole lesbian fantasy between Portman and Kunis, well that is really nothing shocking and nothing I haven't seen before, it just seemed like they were trying to play the shock value card, and by having an innocent actress such as Portman, that's really what makes the film pop! Or so they think. Let me ask you this, if they had an actress like Sharon Stone who was famous for showing her muffin, in Basic Instinct, would it have been so shocking, and that's my point, instead they showed Portman doing this. I really think that this scene is all this film is going to be remembered for, after time passes us by.
I really just think this film was just two hours of ballet, with a little bit of paranoid psychosis, alternate personality syndrome mixed in with it. With this film I find also it's like being on a roller coaster with just one big hill and no little twist's and turns before the end. You stand in the big line up, waiting and anticipating for it to move forward, but nothing does, then after an hour waiting in the boring line up you finally get to go on the ride. Then it's like at the beginning of the ride your going up the hill, getting all intrigued by the character's then you get closer to the top, getting a little bit confused, then you finally reach the top, and then boom! Your flying down the hill, letting all the secrets of the film fly past you. Then the ride stops and it's over. No little twists and turns on the way to the end of the ride.
To some it all up this film basically goes like this. A girl is under pressure from her mother and the ballet company, then she get's horny and wants to have sex with a woman but doesn't have the nerve to step outside of her little box of the ballet world and her controlling mother, then she goes nuts thinks she's some form of human/swan creature, and dies due to her mental issues, The End.
So I'm just basically saying great acting, great camera work. But just bad writing with no original thought, just the same old "mental problems" film, with hints of being lesbian. And besides no reputable ballet company would even hire a girl that has such low self confidence, also in the final act where she falls off of the guy who is holding her up, then crashes to the stage, I think the director of the ballet would have her replaced. She seemed to of hit that stage pretty damn hard, and then to go back out and finish the piece in total perfection, come on people, I think if I hit my knee that hard I would be limping around at least slightly, let alone doing ballet. We as an audience don't miss details like this.
If you like that sort of thing then it's the film for you, but if you don't then don't watch it. And if you want to watch a decent ballet film then watch Dario Argento's "Susperia". It's not the greatest film but in my opinion just a nice well balanced story with great colour, good acting, excellent film work and imagination for it's time.
Thanks for reading.