Black Swan

Rating: 5/10 (6 December 2010)

BLACK SWAN After walking the red carpet to the New York Ziegfeld's 1131 seat theater I settled into my chair to watch Darron Aronofsky's newest opus, Black Swan. Having enjoyed his last outing, The Wrestler, I had high hopes and although I can't speak for the other 1130 people, mine were not fulfilled. Increasing my disappointment is the fact that Aronofsky is a competent director who had a good story, performed by good actors and set in a great city. Unfortunately, he was handed gold and delivered lead. The film's plot was touted as a modern day All About Eve, substituting ballet dancers for actors with Natalie Portman in the Bette Davis role and Mila Kunis as a conniving Anne Baxter type. When Portman's character "Nina" is given the lead role in a production of "Swan Lake" by her womanizing producer, played by a creepy Vincent Cassel, she immediately becomes insecure about her own talent and feels the competition of Kunis' "Lily" biting at her heels or should I say flats. Making matters worse is her domineering stage mother "Erica" played by an underused Barbara Hershey and the previous Swan Queen "Beth" played by an also underused Winona Ryder (in fact, Ryder's scenes consist of standing silently in a sea of extras, verbally assaulting Portman with language that would make Tony Soprano blush, lying unconscious in a hospital bed and self-mutilation). Aronofsky's style is evident early on, with hand held camera shots which although give a voyeuristic point of view, may also be a distraction, especially in moments meant for plot points and clarity. Speaking of plot, some seeds are planted and never explored while others are planted and watered with predictability. The resultfertilizer. Case in point, when Portman enters her mother's bedroom which is covered with dozens of drawings of faces with large mouths, when she becomes unhinged and enters a second time what do you think she sees or should I sayhears. What Aronofsky believes will save this hodge-podge of related situations (connected by a thin shoe lace) is the much hyped and gratuitous sex scene between his two female leads. Although interesting, especially to men who like movies about ballet dancers, it goes uncomfortably too far, as does a scene where Portman pleasures herself with her sleeping mother in the room. It is obviously meant as artistic expression but comes off more as immature perversion. One wonders if this was done because the director wanted toor just felt he could. Lost in the shuffle is the actual "dance" which is the reason we're supposed to care about these characters. There is some interest in the hard work that goes on behind a ballet production but like the sex scenes, Aronofsky takes it too far focusing on sexual harassment, deformed feet and bulimic behavior when any one of these would have been enough to underline the point. For what it's worth, the core of the story, if one can still see it amongst the sex, drugs and gore, is relatable and Portman's performance is good and credit should be given for the training and discipline she endured to prepare for the role. Unfortunately, what could have been a movie about an artist dealing with competition and inner demons turns into a cheesy horror flick with over the top symbolism. If it does indeed garner Oscar nominations, one should be given to the special effects team which was obviously borrowed from the last Twilight film. To sum upBlack Swan wasn't the worst film I saw all year but as the credits rolled instead of hearing Tchaikovsky's score, I heard Bette Davis turning in her grave.