Portrait of a severe "nervous breakdown."

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2010)

I'm no ballet expert so I won't speak to that aspect of the film. Basically, you get to see what used to be called a nervous breakdown (do psychologists still use this phrase?), accompanied by Hollywood special effects and production values. Was the symbolism interesting? Perhaps, but I was too bored to pay too much attention, to be honest. What's the point? She lives with her mother, who likely has OCD and is overprotective, and she's in a high-pressure situation, and probably has been since childhood. It's an ugly film, really, and there's not much to be garnered from it, other than what any "normal" adult probably already knows, about life in general.
I'm all for ugly films, actually, but I need something else, to "break the tension." In the foreign film, "The Forest for the Trees," the young teacher keeps talking about "new techniques" that she will use in her classes, yet all we see is her being treated badly by her students while she fumbles around, having difficulty doing the basics. It's that kind of "sick humor" that can work in this kind of film, at least for me, but in "Black Swan," it's just a buildup to the obvious. Of course, they could have had a different ending, but where else could it go? Essentially, it's too one-dimensional to be considered a "must see," that's for sure.