Neither enlightening nor moving, only titillating. Squandered opportunity with no dancing.

Rating: 4/10 (13 February 2011)

Well, the rave reviews are primarily a symptom of the cultural illiteracy of film critics and the public today. I guess no one has seen Moira Shearer in "The Red Shoes." THERE's a movie with true depth and artistry, a true-to-life dramatic story for the ages, and real dancing to go with it, dancing that expresses the story, and camera-work that is to die for. Sorry, "Black Swan" is a titillating bit of over-the-top cheap thrills.
Nowadays, if we get bashed over the head with a white/black dichotomy, then people are so thrilled that they got it and think they saw something artsy. Please.
Nina is supposed to go through a transformation from uptight purity to free, dark, sexuality; however, we never see any transformation in Nina's dancing. Any change in her character was achieved through over-the-top special effects. Natalie Portmann makes certainly a respectable effort with the dancing, but if the director really had an eye, he would not have cast her. Would you have an amateur actor scratch out a violin concerto, or would you dub it in, instead? She really did not need to do much acting because of all the horror effects, so they may as well have cast a ballet dancer who could really dance the two parts. Then they could have shown some full ballet numbers where the contrast is fully expressed, and then there would have been true comprehension by the audience of what goes into achieving the ultimate as an artist . There was pretty much no choreography or real dancing in this film, to show audiences the glory and expressiveness of top-notch ballet. What a shame and lost opportunity.
Ballet struggles enough to survive in this age of zero cultural education in secondary schools. This was a chance to expose popular audiences to art that they rarely get to see. People came out of "Amadeus" having learned for the first time really to listen to classical music. They came out of "Diva" with the aria of "Tosca" burned into their brain. They come out of "The Red Shoes" having savored high art, which they can watch over and over again. They come out of "Black Swan" with little clue of how exquisite ballet can be. Well, hopefully, a few souls will have been intrigued enough to go check out a real ballet.
I rate it 4 for entertainment value as a horror flick, but that's all.