Difficult and unpleasant.

Rating: 3/10 (26 January 2011)

I really wanted to like this film. Indeed I wanted to love this film. However a film about self mutilation, mental sickness, sexual harassment and quite possibly abuse by a domineering parent is very hard going. This was a beautifully made film of a dreadfully upsetting story. There is no doubt that each of the actors within the film put their heart and soul into it and Darren Aronofsky is a film maker of courage and vision. It is just that the story is so bloody dire and unpleasant! I would have enjoyed seeing how the main character managed the transition from the White Swan to the Black Swan without the gratuitous (and incredibly un-erotic) sex scene. There is definitely the foundations of a wonderful film on this most beautiful of ballets, but this film most definitely did not manage the transition from a cygnet to a swan, either black or white.