Coming off 2008's "The Wrestler", where Aronofsky took a look at the unglamorous life of an aging wrestler, he now turns his eye into the extremely competitive world of ballet. Very few people have the talent, dedication, and will to sacrifice that it takes to make it in the world of ballet (as is true of most any artistic venture or competitive athletic profession). For those that do meet the prerequisite, to make your stamp as one of the all-time greats, in addition (as I hinted at before), you need some intangible quality that creates an unbreakable menage a trois between the audience, the music, and the performer. It is a hard thing to quantify, but whether you have the trained eye of a decades-long professional, or if you have never seen a performance in your life, it is not hard to spot someone who has "it". Most people with that special "it" are likely born with the lack of inhibition that makes them great artists, but it is possible to learn how to "lose yourself", and this is the task set for the heroine in "Black Swan".
This tale's Alice taking the plunge down the rabbit hole is Nina (Natalie Portman), a 20-something year old in the New York City Ballet who spent the entirety of her short-life dedicated to ballet. Nina lives in the city in a apartment with her mom Erica (Barbara Hershey), an ex-ballerina herself who is emotionally unhinged and strangely obsessed and possessive with her daughter. After working hard in minor roles, the extremely naive Nina gets her break when the company's artistic director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), tires of the aging (which means late twenties or early thirties) prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder), and picks Nina to star in the company's rendition of "Swan Lake". This requires Nina to play two roles, that of the innocent and pure White Swan, and also the White Swan's care-free and sexually adventurous twin, the Black Swan. While Leroy has no doubt that Nina can pull off the role of the White Swan flawlessly, he has reservations about whether she can portray the risque Black Swan.
Partly in order to make her let go of her inhibitions, and partly because he is in a position of power to take advantage of the beautiful Nina, he "imposes" himself on her, including kissing and groping her. At first reluctant, Nina starts to open herself up, which includes masturbating (at Leroy's request), and after a wild night out of drinking and drugs, some lesbian sex with one of the new company girls, Lily (Mila Kunis), whose personality mirrors that of the Black Swan. This descent into the darker side of life though does not come without a price, as weird things begin happening to Nina. She constantly has scratch marks on her shoulder blades, she has problems with her fingernails, and her feet become webbed. This all culminates to the big night of her debut, where her friendship with Lily morphs into a rivalry and her transformation into the Black Swan finally becomes complete.
Aronofsky does a great job at keeping the audience on edge. The film is very dark (both literally and figuratively), and I doubt there has been a dance movie with as much blood as "Black Swan". Part of the technique that Aronofsky uses to create the right atmosphere is great camerawork, such as the dance scenes where he uses circular camera motions to imitate the movement of ballet, and a great strobe-lighting scene in the dance club. Little touches like these help the film stand-out from others in the suspense/thriller crowd.
While Aronofsky's direction brings the film up a level, it is not without its flaws. "Black Swan" is at its best when it is contemplating the questions I posed at the beginning of this article. What it takes to be an artist is an endlessly fascinating topic to me, as so many of my favorite artists seem to be half-mad or extremely depressed (Kurt Cobain, David Bowie, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando just to name a few). The well-adjusted great artist is a rare find indeed. Unfortunately though, the film veers off into fantasy sequences at its finale, including overuse of bad CGI (though there is no such thing as good CGI in my opinion), and a predictable ending that breaks the level of suspense. The ending is very similar to the Aronofsky's ending of his 2008 film "The Wrestler". Both films endings parallel the overwrought dramatic nature of their subject matters: wrestling and ballet. Both arts (and yes, that type of wrestling is closer to the arts than to sports) borrow from the school of Greek tragedies that trades in nuance for large themes and bitter ironies. While the decision to mirror the subject matter makes 100% rational sense (which makes it better than wrestling and ballet), the weaknesses in the subject matter can't help but leak into the film a bit, making the overall experience weaker.
The acting in the film though is superb throughout. Natalie Portman gives the greatest performance in her career (and will be nominated for it in a few weeks, and maybe even win), playing an emotionally conflicted young girl who descends into madness for the sake of her art. Vincent Cassel does a good job of portraying the chauvinistic egotist artistic director that he based off of George Balanchine. It is a tough role to play, as it would be easy to go off into stereo-typical histrionics, but Cassel strikes the perfect balance between caricature and realism. Finally, the other great performance that I must praise, is that of Mila Kunis. Playing the nonchalant rebel Lily, Kunis perfectly plays the sly seductress and is really the key to keeping the level of suspense at a high level. While receiving praise from many corners, it is still unclear whether Kunis will receive a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but she definitely deserves the honor, as she has given the best performance of anyone in that category that I have seen so far this year.
Anyone expecting some nice story about a ballerina is going to be a little shell shocked after seeing "Black Swan". This is one of the darker films of the year that explores some provocative corners of the mind. There are some very interesting themes the film explores, and despite the fact that the film fizzles somewhat in the final act, it is still one of the better films of the year.
Rating: 9/10
Christopher Lominac
I just saw the film and thought it was very good. I agree with your thought of an artist having to be a little unstable. I felt Natalie was very convincing as the ballerina trying to be perfect. Some of the shots of her body being so thin was hard to see. I also thought there was one shot when the ballet teacher was on the bar with Natilla and the shot was the back of the teacher and the front of Natilla was very interesting to me. Also thought the mom played a very good role she gave me the creeps. And, yes I thought Mila was one of the best performances I have seen. She help make Natillas descent into darkness so real. The movie made me continue thinking of it into the next day.
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