Surprisingly camp

Rating: 6/10 (9 February 2014)

Darren Aronofsky's film 'Black Swan' tells the story of a ballet dancer driven to madness by her paranoid fears of her fellow cast members and the challenge of expressing two sides of her own personality in an important double role. I'm no expert on ballet, but to me one problem of this film is that Natalie Portman so palpably conveys her growing discomfort in the role that she doesn't seem credible as the lead; the sense to which she appears ill-at-ease would surely lead to any director casting someone else in her stead. I also found the character is closed to the audience; the film didn't do enough to make me care about her. The final twist is clever but camp; but for a realistic portrait of the pressures of being a professional performer, look elsewhere.