Black Swan presents a dark side to classic ballet

Rating: 9/10 (18 September 2013)

Black Swan a psychological thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky presents a dark side to classic ballet. Natalie Portman plays the lead character Nina Sayers, a young ballet dancer in her twenties living in New York City with her mother (Barbara Hershey). Aronofsky did a great job in capturing Nina, the theme of the film, through many close-up shots and positioning the camera angle throughout the film to focus on solely her. The film begins abruptly with Nina in the spotlight on stage performing as the Swan Queen in the production of Swan Lake. Though this performance was just a dream, her flawless ballet dance moves and the intense sound of the piano playing in the background prepare you for the thrill, mystery and drama that you are about to witness within the film. Nina doesn't have any friends, her mother Erica Sayers, is the only friend and confidant that she has. Nina is in her mid twenties but she is treated like a child by her overbearing mother. Ballet is Nina's life, even when she is not in the studio she is continuously practicing dance choreography in an effort to be perfect. The ballet company is casting a new star role for their production of Swan Lake, and she will stop at nothing to get the role of the Swan Queen. The Swan Queens role is complicated because it embodies two personalities; the white swan and the black swan. Nina's begins to develop a crush on her ballet director Leroy (Vincent Cassel) but he doesn't think that she is capable of being the black swan because of her innocent and uptight personality. Growing up in a sheltered environment Nina is socially awkward and it's hard for Leroy to envision her having a dark wild side but she will show him otherwise.
Nina becomes obsessed with Swan Lake and in the midst of trying to prove her ability to be the black swan, she begins to lose herself. Mila Kunis plays the character of Lily, a ballerina from San Francisco, who has zero self discipline and is wild and promiscuous. Lily is everything that Nina is not and everything that she wants to be. Lily befriends Nina and you slowly see Nina's mannerisms begin to change. Strange things begin to happen and the issue of separating reality from illusion becomes custom. Nina feels pressure from her mother to be perfect, to be the best as well as pressure from Leroy in her performance for Swan Lake causing her to become unstable.
If you've seen The Machinist directed by Brad Anderson, and you like that kind of thriller then you will love Black Swan as their themes are alike in many ways. Nina's character is a lot like Christian Bales character Trevor in The Machinist, Trevor suffers from insomnia and his body looks thin an unhealthy, he becomes delusional and believes that someone is out to get him. Nina suffers from anorexia because of the pressure on her to be skinny and perfect in her role as the swan queen and while she begins feel like the swan queen she has illusions and thinks that Lily is after her by trying to replace her in Swan Lake.
Mirrors are used as a motif in the film, seen all over in almost in every scene. Nina strives to be perfect and the more she pushes herself to do better, the more unwound and delusional she becomes. The mirrors consistency in each scene of the film represents how Nina sees herself. In the beginning of the film when Nina is standing in front of the mirror she looks innocent, fragile and easily intimidated. As the film progresses you see Nina through the mirrors and her mannerisms begin to change, she seems more confident and tranquil. The mirrors are also used throughout the film to show her body physically changing progressively into something inhuman. The Black Swan is a film that captures the story of a girl who is pressured to be perfect, to dance perfectly and in the midst of fulfilling her dream, she becomes someone else something else.