Great acting, but what a mess!

Rating: 2/10 (30 January 2011)

Natlie Portman was truly brilliant, but the story (both writing and directing) is a mess and ultimately not credible. It takes enormous determination, strength and personal courage over long thankless years to rise to a prominent position in a top ballet company, so it is simply not believable that someone as tortured, insecure and fragile as Nina could have achieved her position. The relentless depiction of her mental strain becomes annoying after so many repetitions. And this is before the movie wanders off into wild impressionism, blending hallucination with reality, that make us wonder if it is Nina or the director who is schizophrenic. The whole sad affair is simply overwrought.