Gratuitous Swan

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2011)

We all know that Natalie Portman is one of the best weepers and criers in film but Aronofsky sure lets her beat it to death in this one. Honestly, felt like it could have used a couple more rewrites. She's weepy and whiny and needy the entire film until she beats up ( or thinks she beats up ) her ballerina competitor.
The lesbian scene sure as hell seemed gratuitous when I was watching it and I tried to find a reason for it in the narrative of the film but didn't find a reason until the next day in an interview with Portman: "We added it because otherwise men wouldn't want to come see a movie about the ballet" At least she's honest about it. The masturbation scene seemed way over the top as well - note to men: search for the masturbation and lesbian scenes on the internet and avoid seeing the rest of the movie.
Not sure how this can lay claim to being an 'art film' with such a shameless shilling of the actress in a lesbian scene to make a few extra bucks. I wouldn't mind any of the above if it was a good movie - but its too one-dimensional - she's weepy and needy and wimpy the entire movie and then when she finally does get to do her blessed 'black swan' but its only for 30 seconds.
I expected a lot more from Aronofsky after 'The Wrestler'. Granted, a ton of people and critics loved this film so who needs to hear from me? I would imagine Aronofsky is falling victim to his own success being surrounded by art critics, actors and producers slathering and slobbering all over him with awe and compliments thereby pushing his ego to new limits which allowed him to deliver a story thin on narrative. Who's going to edit him? Anybody who can sit before Mickey Rourke prior to The Wrestler and say "I'm not going to do this unless you do exactly what I tell you to on set" has got a pair of cajones on him, lets hope his cajones don't get so big that he loses his way like a Noah Baumbach.
Hopefully he does have some kind of mentor in his life that he will listen to. I'd like to see him take a step back first and stick with a grounded, real-life character movie than proceed straight to some Atom Egoyan-ish, Terrence Mallick-ish meandering dream scape devoid of any grounding in reality.
My guess is the latter. Too bad.