Lame.

Rating: 3/10 (7 March 2011)

Take "Red Shoes" for the ballerina being driven into catastrophe by her self centered surroundings, including a ballet company director. "Secretary" for the girl dominated by her mother and cutting herself in response. And maybe "Shining" for some horror effects plus that camera closely following a protagonist for the thrills. And you realize that this film brings nothing original to the table.
The characters are cardboard. A loser mother pretending that she had given up her career for her daughter. A ballet company director whose single function is an endless telling the ballerina to "let loose", and promoting that agenda by putting his hand between her legs. And a ballerina supposed to have no friends, no social contacts at all actually besides her mother and jealous colleagues. This is indeed black and white, lacking depth, nuances or even just realism.
It gets worse though. Better films in this arena decidedly blur the distinction between reality and the disturbed protagonist's fantasy. This film doesn't have that courage though. We're presented with a scene where ballerina peels off the skin of her finger, then a film cut, then the finger is intact. And from that moment on we know that, whatever weird is going to happen, it's happening in her mind.
Then Portman as a ballet dancer. One could cast Michael Fox as a sumo ringer. And it might work the day before his great fight, when he's looking into the mirror, in a closeup, and asking himself if he's gonna make it once again. But once he's entering the ring there's some likeliness that he'd be failing to convince. The impression Portman is making as a dancer is suffering from the very same problem.
Cheapest of all though is the ending, which can be considered 1940th Hollywood style at best, and a mere cop out by today's standards: the hero(ine) dies with a last sigh, everybody standing around is guilty and none of the conflicts is actually resolved.
Made for the effect. Unoriginal. Lazy. That's the bottom line I'm drawing here.