Sublime. Sensual. Sinister. Superb.

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2011)

"Black Swan" opens with Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) performing as the White Swan, as the triumphant orchestra bellows behind her while the camera rotates around her frantically, to capture her elegance and grace. Minutes later, she awakens from her dream. She goes to a ballet academy in New York City to try out for the play "The Black Swan", and hopefully win the lead part of the White Swan, but doing so also means that she will have to play the part of the Black Swan as well, the White Swan's evil twin.
Such is the case in the latest drama by Darren Aronofsky, fast becoming one of the most sought-after and talented filmmakers of modern times. The film's tale of sought-after perfection and its consequences is a plot that, honestly, has been tried one too many times by many films, most of them used as family-friendly plot-lines by mainstream studios. Aronofsky, however, bravely shows the stark consequences of this, and boldly shows the raw consequence of perfection to its brutal honesty. We ask ourselves, eventually, should we work hard for what we want, or should we only strive for what we need? And should we go down that hard road, is it too late to turn back?
With that, we come to our star, Natalie Portman, who delivers a tour-de-force performance, a career-making one as Nina. For an actress to play such a challenging role which requires a various cocktail of emotions, and for her to pull it off so brilliantly, it takes true, raw talent, and she commands every scene with her stark performance. It is a mesmerizing performance that will engage and floor those who see it.
Coming to the other actors, Vincent Cassel is terrifically slimy yet charming as the artistic director who seduces Nina to bring her darker side out. His aggressive and fierce persona gave a lot of power to his character who (un)intentionally took Nina to a downward spiral. Mila Kunis, gorgeous as ever, exhibits a wild, youthful charge as Lily, as she constantly "challenges" Nina she displays a sinister vibe to her character, and then back to being happy-go-lucky again. Barbara Hershey also strongly plays a character who shows hidden tendencies, and while not exaggerating it, Hershey underplays her character so well that it's near impossible to find out that she has issues concerning her daughter, at least during the first quarter of the film. Finally we have Winona Ryder, as Leroy's ex-lead Beth, disgruntled and angry at him for firing her and replacing her with Nina instead.
Darren Aronofsky's usual crew returns here to work on the film, and they work wonders with what they have. Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin pen the screenplay with care and crafts a balanced and coherent tale. Using their script, the crew puts it to fantastic effect: Cinematographer Matthew Libatique captures the dancers by frenetically using his camera to follow the dancers from the backstage onto the stage itself, and then revolving around various dancers as they perform on the stage in order to thrust the audience directly into the action as an experience. Editor Andrew Weisblum paces the film accordingly without it being too fast or shot, and with some of the shots so perfectly placed together it makes the story better. Clint Mansell's music in the film is a brilliant piece of work. Production design and art direction utilizes full use of the State University of New York's Performing Arts Center at Purchase, from the ballerinas practicing to the main event during the film's exhilarating 20-minute finale.
Lastly, there is Aronofsky himself, who crafts the film with a detailed eye and a strong visual sense. He knows how to utilize Libatique's camera and use it to bring out the full effect of the scene he's shooting, be it from the simplest of static shots to the complex choreography of the ballerinas. His huge passion and dedication to the film can be seen through the actors, and not just particularly though Portman herself.
Darren Aronofsky continues to prove himself as a tour-de-force filmmaker who can make effective and engaging quality films, ever since his extremely depressing but superb magnum opus "Requiem For A Dream" a decade ago. With "Black Swan" he brought out the best in Natalie Portman, and continues his streak as one of the most brilliant directors working today. See this movie, and may the Academy reward Portman for her work. She deserves it. After graduating as a child star, and after a reasonably well career in between, Portman has grown into a beautiful young woman and a fantastic young actress, and this movie is the result of plenty of hard work over the years. Well done.
Without a doubt one of 2010's very best films.
Overall rating: 90/100