Portman Deserved the Oscar

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2011)

Say what you will about "The Black Swan" -- that it is difficult at times to distinguish what's supposed to be real from what's supposed to be imaginary, that the onset of self-destructive insanity makes the movie excessively unpleasant, that it offers a distorted portrait of ballet and ballet dancers -- but Natalie Portman swept the Oscar and other major acting awards for a reason: She is utterly compelling as Nina Sayers, the young ballerina chosen to play the Odette/Odile (White Swan/Black Swan) duo in a new version of "Swan Lake," one of ballet's most familiar masterworks. It's said that Portman did most of her own dancing, an assertion I'm inclined to doubt because much of the footwork displayed on the screen is just that, footwork without a body attached. But that's unimportant. The central thesis of this movie is that the two swans display such opposite characteristics that it is necessary for the ballerina playing the dual roles to transform herself psychologically in order to succeed in both parts. Nina Sayers is pushed to and over the brink as she strives to meet the challenge. It's not entirely clear but she may, in fact, have killed herself in the process of achieving a triumphant embodiment of both Odette and Odile. While there are other performances in the film that might be worth noting, everything ultimately rests on the slender shoulders of Ms. Portman, and she bears the burden with extraordinary skill. We've been told that she damaged her feet in meeting this film's physical demands. One wonders how well she managed to deal with the psychological demands which must have been intense, even though she had read the script and knew that she, if not Nina, would survive intact.