Soft Porn masquerading as serious drama

Rating: 5/10 (16 January 2011)

I'm sorry to say that I found Black Swan a deep disappointment. The hype had me believing that the film had something serious to say about the grey borderline between virtue and temptation. But although many of the crew and cast probably entered the project with such worthy aspirations in mind, their producers and studio bosses have turned the work into something little more than a lusty romp between sexy ballerinas in a dark vampire like setting.
For me the film lost significant credibility within minutes of opening. Ballerinas capable of landing lead parts in major productions are never naive virgins too frightened to look at their own shadow. The enormous work and effort required to reach that pinnacle is not possible for the faint hearted. And definitely not for the mentally disabled either. It was clear to all that the lead was suffering from various serious mental conditions and no director or producer would ever allow such a mentally fragile unknown to top the bill in a major production. It would be too much of a risk for everyone concerned. In consequence the whole scenario was contrived rubbish. Moreover no professional would freak out at the thought of a understudy coveting her role. It's perfectly normal and healthy for the understudy to covet the role they are covering. And any professional who had a problem with this would be 'let go' on the spot. And neither do débutante lead performers take serious psychedelic drugs in night clubs into the small hours during the evening before their opening. Again this was unimaginable rubbish. And as for the chances of a performer pulling off a fantastic solo with a fatal piece of glass rammed in their gut for half an hour I can only say that the idea was indicative of the whole production; pathetic fantasy.
Of course we did see a lot of lesbian love scenes, semi nudity, breast touching and genital licking by the lead female performers. Plainly there has to be something to excite some of the excessive interest in this production and the high scores it has achieved on this site. But whilst full frontal nudity among male stars is now quite commonplace (I mean who hasn't seen the penis and testicles of Jonathan Rhys Myers, Leonardo Di Caprio, Daniel Bruhl and Ewan Mgreggor for example)the equivalent exposure for female stars is sadly lacking. And this film was no exception. So I can't give it high marks there either.
But the film does popularize Tchaikowski and some of the scenes are well crafted in terms of visual and music mixing. The general idea behind the movie, namely the interface between good and evil in us all, is also excellent. But what a pity the concept was ruined by typical Hollywood smut and primitive sexual marketing.