Mediocre

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2011)

This review may contain... WILL contain spoilers. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't good either. Usually after watching a psychological thriller, I am left disturbed for a few days and pondering the movie. I continually am trying to figure out the characters and their motivations - even when I don't like the movie. Here, I am left indifferent. The movie is pretty obvious in what it says and in the end feels quite empty. I recommend reading Mikelepost's review.
The movie is about repressing your dark side, which Nina (Natalie Portman) has done and I'm assuming that's why she has cracked. She wears pink while everyone else wears black, she is perfect for the white swan but not the black swan. First problem, though, is Nina is already teetering on the edge and has been for quite some time now. This reduces the tension the movie can achieve and any surprise when given a reveal. She was suppose to have ALREADY dealt with her self-mutilating problems but still is scratching herself - in case you didn't get it, that's why she always has blood on her finger tips. This already unstable wacko is then picked to be the lead in swan lake. Why? Because as we see through the prior prima ballerina, Beth (Winona Ryder), the director Thomas (Vinent Cassel) likes his primary dancers with a healthy dose of crazy. Nina's struggle with her repressed dark side/black swan comes to a head from the pressure of dancing the lead and the introduction of Lily, the free-spirited Californian who embraces her dark side. Lily begins to manifest in Nina's brain as a representation of her own dark side. (Helpful hint if you missed it - The sex scene between them is clearly imagined since when Nina and Lily walk into her apartment, their reflections in the mirror behind them are split as if the two people are really one.) Has Nina repressed her sexuality because she has lesbian tendencies? Another potential idea that is not explored.
That's the setup and here's the breakdown... The first hour of the movie is boring with little action or plot other than some Nina doppelgangers. Winona Ryder's character is near pointless. Some, umm a lot, of the dialogue, especially everything Lily says is poorly written and a lil cheesy at times. Most characters are one-dimensional - OK it's Swan Lake but no other character is explored - I thought Vincent Cassel's character had no sexual interest in Nina and was just trying to drive her a little mad to pull the performance out of her. Even appointing Kunis as her understudy because he knew it would rattle Nina. Also, it seems Nina is more interested in Cassel but the 'hot for teacher' aspect that gets hinted at in the beginning goes no where and I thought these were missed opportunities and potential for an actual plot as there really was none. There is little to no dancing. Nina finally perfects the Black Swan, on the night of the performance mind you, and all you see of it is crazy eyes and a couple of twirls - some crowning achievement. The whole point of the delving into the dark side and you don't get to see its release. As for Portman's Oscar win - I am OK with it. To me, her acting is always wooden and here it is the same but perfectly suits the character Nina. The reason for her visions go unexplained and have no significance other than she goes outside of herself when she is scratching.
There is no complexity to the movie or the one-dimensional characters, everything is pretty much right on the surface. What happened to our sweet little girl Nina? She really was the clepto black swan that convinced the world she was the white swan and I am still indifferent. I also agree with the reviewer who said, the whole creative process of the movie was done by men, men who still think women are either the repressed virgin or the whore. This contributed to the lack of depth in any character. It was a good idea with good visuals but the screenplay needed some work.
EDIT: I also didn't see the mother as over-bearing as most did. Was the mom a little too much and not necessarily fully sane herself? Sure, however, I felt the mother knew her daughter wasn't mentally well. Her constantly checking her body was to make sure she wasn't mutilating herself again and she also repeatedly said the lead role was too much for Nina. It seemed mom knew that Nina's psyche would crack under the stress and it did. So there must have been some prior break-down's in Nina's life. Again though, in a movie that was painfully obvious, the minor characters intentions are so subtle to the point of incomprehensible.