A Minority Opinion

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2011)

Black Swan (2010), directed by Darren Aronofsky, has an IMDb rank within the 100 highest-scoring films ever made. It's hard to argue with that kind of success, but I wasn't that impressed by the movie.
The plot itself is standard ballet fare--beautiful principal dancer, aging dancer being forced to retire, "friend" who is anything but, cruel but talented director, smothering mother who never got past the corps in her own career. What else is new?
The film alternates between reality and hallucination, and often we can't tell which we're seeing. Serious mental illness is treated as just another part of the tense, competitive ballet world. If you are actively hallucinating, you need medical help. Audience applause won't do it.
I think part of the film's critical success is based on Natalie Portman's beauty. The image of Portman in her Black Swan makeup--used for the movie's poster--has already become iconic. Portman is a fine actor. So are Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, and Barbara Hershey. They're all good actors in a good movie. So, Black Swan is worth seeing. However, in my opinion, it shouldn't rank 61st in the list of the greatest movies of all time.