The "Fight Club" of Ballet? Perhaps...

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2010)

I had never heard of Black Swan before a local paper review tickled my fancy; glad it did because the two friends I dragged to see it throughly enjoyed themselves. Unfortunately, attendance was sparse...
Black Swan's protagonist reminded of the disturbed protagonist in Fight Club on many levels. Both are living fragmented, illusion-based realities that they manage to overcome to reach the pinnacle of their self-destructive achievements. While comparing the Black Swan role to Project Mayhem may be a stretch, this movie gives Swan Lake a whole new, visceral, edge.
Natalie Portman makes meek and mild a household name in most movies and she reprises that attitude to its zenith here. Living with an overbearing mother, Nina Sayers (her role) desperately attempts to climb the rungs of her dance studio...stealing from the past, guarding against the present and forsaking the future for her complete immersion into the dual role of White Swan and Black Swan. The Black Swan eludes her until she loses herself in lust with her rival Lily, shipped in from California to compete for the role.
Many side stories ensue, from the overbearing mother to the small-studio struggles to the prisons of fame, but Nina somehow keeps her fragmenting mind alive for a bravura performance. We slowly see her, literally, transforming into the Black Swan, pulling illusory feathers from her back and standing up to home and studio to achieve perfection. It isn't an easy ride as her fragile confidence meets relenting pressure and results in a boiling point finale where she becomes the Black Swan, but at what cost to herself?
Portman carries the movie, but her supporting cast, like the lithe ballet crew that surround her, make it an incredible and memorable journey. Who knew ballet could be surrounded by a psychologically taut and at times disqueting aura?
Simply wonderful, see it at once!