Black Swan (aka Everyone wants to bone Natalie Portman)

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2010)

Directed by: David Aronofsky Ho-lee crap I don't think I can quite express in words how awesome this movie was. If you need a short version, its absolutely amazing, probably the best movie this year, and shoves all the complexity of a great work of literature into some of the most interesting two hours of film ever.
Now then, Black Swan is about the ballet Swan Lake, in which the ballerina who plays The Swan Queen must show both the innocence and virginity of the role of the White Swan, while also playing the opposite role, the lusty and seductive Black Swan. Natalie Portman plays Nina, who is one of the hardest working dancers in her ballet company, who gets picked to play The Swan Queen. The conflict arises when her director, played by Vincent Cassel, tells her that her White Swan is perfect, but that she seems to lack in the role of the Black Swan. This is followed up by the director attempting to unleash Nina's inner Black Swan through means of seducing her, and waiting for her to go and seek her darker persona.
Meanwhile, Nina's Mother is over-bearing and highly protective of her, in what ends up being a very psycho kind of obsessive nature. Also, Mila Kunis plays Lily, who is the opposite of Nina, perfect at the Black Swan, but not the ideal White Swan. Nina feels pressure from her director to adapt to the Black Swan, pressure from her Mother to remain the White Swan, and pressure from Lily's presence and the possibility that she will lose her role as Swan Queen to her.
All of this is built up over the fact that Nina herself is popping up all over the place with bloody wounds, scratch marks, and in general experiencing a full on mental breakdown, in more ways than one. When it all combines it brings the damn house down.
What is really so great about Black Swan is how seamless all of this feels. There isn't a single moment in the film that feels forced. Every aspect of it is set up early and remains as much a part of the film until the very end. The psychological aspect presents itself slower than most, but makes up for it by ruling over the final act of the movie. Furthermore, the pressures that Nina feels are not the pressures of a ballerina that has to play The Swan Queen, they are the pressures that everyone feels, pressures of parents, pressures of playing your role, pressures of competition, all of it applies universally across men and women. Once the movie wraps up it seems to be about breaking everyone's expectations, rising to the challenge, and doing what you want to do.
But this aspect also bring out other more challenging aspects of playing a role. Nina is originally seduced largely by her director, what she does subsequently largely has to do with how she is told to adapt to the role. The movie seems to play an underscore about how far do you go to break the expectations? Furthermore, whose expectations are you really playing for? At what point do you stop being yourself and become your role? The complexity of all this is all presented really well, through beautiful dance scenes, and a brilliant classical score. This movie has blood, sex, dance, and art, all mixed up together in a blend that has been seen before, but nowhere near as great as it is presented here.
If you like movies, you'll love Black Swan. This is absolutely a must-see!! Go see it now. Now! NOW!!!