A brilliant piece of "Magical Realism"

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2011)

The movie is not actually about ballet - it is more about an inner dialog that Nina has with herself in preparing for the part of the Black Swan, given that she is a perfectionist.
As the movie progresses, we see that she lives with her mother and her bedroom is completely pink with stuffed animals. This seems extremely odd, given that Nina seems to be a grown woman concerned about being an aging ballerina. The movie is more fun to analyze if we interpret it like a Kafka novel where perception is reality.
In this sense, the real Nina may not even live with her mother of have an entirely pink bedroom - these are just reflections about how she sees herself. At one point we see her grabbing a few of her stuffed animals, running to the garbage shoot in her apartment building and thrusting them down the shoot exclaiming that she is not a child anymore. This is just a metaphor for Nina trying to escape her child like nature.
Through out the film, Natalie Portman portrays Nina with a grimace - what seems to be a very concerned smile. This results in a vary flat performance for Portman, but it is exactly what the script requires - this grimaced perfectionist is exactly how Nina sees herself.
Her competitor for the role of the Black Swan is Lily who seems to embody all the personality characteristics Nina does not have. Nina is very suspicious of Lily and one might say that Lily's character embodies all the sources of the neuroses that Nina has.
Towards the end of the movie, Nina destroys Lily but ends up stabbing herself - a metaphor for the great sacrifice she has made to achieve the part of the Black Swan.
In the final scene, she jumps and lands (as the White Swan's role requires) but the other dancers see that she has stabbed herself for her bodice is red with blood. The ballet director comes over and immediately he sees the blood and calls for help. This, indeed, is the final triumph of any artist, to give everything to that role ( or painting or book) and then be recognized for that effort.
Given this "Magical Realism" framework it is indeed fascinating to go through the movie and try to interpret the succession of events. In this way, the movie is truly amazing.