A Slow Creep Into Insanity - Touching and Terrifying in Equal Measure!

Rating: 9/10 (19 April 2015)

Darren Aronofsky's obsession with obsession continues in Black Swan - a twisted psychological drama bordering on horror that turns ballet into a dangerous mind game. Here, he explores the quest for perfection in what is a near-perfect film!
This arty thrill ride of a movie has a story mirroring that of 'Swan Lake', the venerable ballet at the heart of the action. It follows coy ballerina Nina Sayers (Portman), who is made the prime ballerina for the upcoming performance of Swan Lake, replacing the previous principal dancer Beth (Ryder), much to the delight of her domineering mother Erica (Hershey). To play the lead in Swan Lake, Nina must embrace her Black Swan - the sinister, unbridled yin to her white and fluffy yang. Pummeled under the barbaric tutelage of her director Tomas (Cassell), Nina begins an inexorable descent into madness. While Nina successfully embodies the innocent, delicate spirit of the White Swan she struggles with the opposite persona of the Black Swan, a more dark and sexual being. As a result she is pushed into competition with Lily (Kunis), a new dancer, who has the ability to capture the darker side of the ballet. In her unending quest for perfection, Nina takes "losing herself" to a whole new level, living in a spinning vortex of fear and unreality. The intensity builds as opening night draws near, Nina's grip on reality becoming more tenuous by the day, and reaches a fever pitch during the first performance of 'Swan Lake', the movie's themes crystallizing into a beautiful, gut-wrenching climax.
Natalie Portman is phenomenal as Nina - it's a virtuoso performance of hard graft. She inhabits the role with gusto, making Nina a superb balance of mothered restraint, desperation, repression and wide-eyed innocence, all masking a caged animal keen to break free - an incredibly raw and gutsy display of her talent. Adding to the film's gravitas are the superb performances from the supporting cast. All of the actors, from the ever watchable Vincent Cassel (as the ballet's sleazy director) to the controlled Mila Kunis (as a dancer as free-spirited as Nina is repressed) to wonderfully monstrous Barbara Hershey (as Nina's overbearing stage mom) to a briefly but effectively used Winona Ryder (as the ballet company's fallen queen bee) are splendid.
But the big star here is unquestionably Aronofsky, whose singular vision quite literally stuns one silent. This film finds the director reverting to his truer, untamed filmmaking self, giving in to his unhinged artistic impulses. It's that quality that gives the film so much more resonance than most thrillers; ironically what makes the film so effective in painting a vividly unsettling picture of losing control is Aronofsky's complete mastery of his material. The slow burn air of unease is established from frame one and carefully, creepily crescendos until finally exploding into a stunningly intense final act - the ultimate cinematic culmination of the film's dualities of focus and surrender, liberation and destruction, and most of all, beauty and horror.
Black Swan has a pulse, a feeling of agitated, intoxicating brilliance. Part thriller, part horror and part trippy exploration of the clash between reality and livid vision, Black Swan is a balls-to-the-wall display of cinematic showmanship.