Artful variant on Jekyll and Hyde

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2011)

A bizarre combination of art-house drama and psycho-sexual thriller, Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" is really an allegorical account of a young woman's descent into madness. It's also a variant of sorts on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," exploring the evil twin that lurks deep inside each and every one of us.
Nina (Natalie Portman) is a sheltered, intensely disciplined and sexually repressed ballerina who's just landed the role of a lifetime – that of the Swan Queen in a major New York ballet company production of "Swan Lake." Yet, while her innocence and formal perfectionism make her a natural for the part of the White Swan, she may lack the fiery, hot-blooded temperament and life experiences needed to convincingly portray the Black Swan. Or so the company director (Vincent Cassell) tells her, a man with an obvious interest in Nina beyond the purely professional. But Nina clearly has more pressing issues to deal with than just a lecherous dance instructor and a mother (Barbara Hershey), a failed dancer herself, who clearly wants to control every aspect of her daughter's life. Nina seems to be losing her grip on reality, as she begins to hear muffled voices, starts bleeding mysteriously from various parts of her body, and appears to be two different people when peering into a mirror. In fact, the idea of dopplegangers becomes a major visual motif throughout the film – reflective of the White Swan/Black Swan, Jekyll and Hyde, Good vs. Evil dichotomy - with one minor character even at one point assuming that Nina and a fellow ballerina are sisters because they look so much alike - as most ballerinas, almost by definition, have a tendency to do. Subtly at first, then with greater intensity as the story progresses, Nina begins to reflect a person deep in the throes of a nervous breakdown.
With a screenplay by Mark Heyman, John McLaughlin and Andres Heinz, based on a story by Heinz, "Black Swan" borrows quite liberally from earlier movies. There's a touch of "All About Eve" in its tale of an up-and-coming newcomer (Mila Kunis) seemingly intent on usurping Nina's lead in the production; there's a hint of "Carrie" in the dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship; and the whole young-woman-slipping-into-madness scenario is eerily reminiscent of Roman Polanski's film "Repulsion" from 1965. That being said, Aronofsky brings a great deal of his own to this work, keeping the horror movie hokum down to a minimum (though some does creep in from time to time) and effectively plunging us into a dizzying alternate reality in the bravura, brilliantly shot and edited scenes towards the end of the film. In fact, the closing stretches of the movie represent cinema in its purest form, as the pacing builds to a frenetic crescendo, perfectly reflective of Nina's mental state at the moment. Nina ultimately finds it in herself to truly become the Black Swan, but at what cost to herself and those around her?
The movie is obviously intended as a cautionary tale about the dangers of obsession and of avoiding life, and about the way in which single-mindedness when carried to the extreme can lead to psychological damage and even insanity for the individual involved. And who is more single-minded, disciplined and obsessed than a prima ballerina?
To say that Portman delivers a tour-de-force performance in this role would be to minimize her accomplishment; she throws herself so deeply into the character that it's hard to decide which is more impressive: the sheer overwhelming physicality of it all or the wrenching emotional conviction. This is clearly her movie, and she has given her whole heart and soul to it. Kunis is equally impressive in the Eve Harrington role of the far more easygoing, but clearly manipulative soubrette whom Nina is convinced wants to take her place in the show. And Hershey brings a compelling mixture of jealousy and concern to the role of a mother who's been where her daughter is now but whose influence over her seems to be waning over time.
Like Nina, we like to show only the White Swan aspect of our personalities to the world at large, choosing to hide – whether consciously or unconsciously – the Black Swan side from public view. Yet, as Nina soon discovers, the Black Swan will at some point insist on having its day, perhaps going so far as to kill off the White Swan in an effort to assert its preeminence.
Freud would have had a field day with this movie.