Black Swan

In his follow-up to the Oscar-nominated film "The Wrestler", director Darren Aronofsky this time turns his focus on another athletic profession: ballet.  Natalie Portman plays an ambitious ballerina named Nina, who after years of toiling as a secondary dancer in her ballet company is ready for the spotlight.  When a famed director arrives to put on a show of his own dark, sexy version of "Swan Lake", Nina beats out the competition for the coveted lead role of the Swan Queen.  But between an unrelentingly critical director, an overbearingly parasitic mother, and her own fear of failure, Nina starts to unravel as she succumbs to dangerous delusions and extreme paranoia.  Aronofsky once again perfectly captures the extreme emotions and pressures associated with competitive sports.  In this case, his keen eye allows the audience to experience the masochistic world of ballet close up.  Nina's obsession to be the best dancer possible is portrayed with scary realism by Portman, who deserves an Oscar nod for this fearless performance.  The actress underwent months of training to pull off dancing like a real ballerina, and it shows.  But Portman goes further than that and succeeds in pulling off not just a complete physical transformation, but a mental one as well.  The ballet's director, Thomas (played with just the right blend of seductive cruelty by Vincent Cassel), rides Nina hard and belittles her technically perfect but cold performance every chance he gets.  And when Nina projects her insecurities on a rival dancer, Lily (a carefree and sexy Mila Kunis), she convinces herself that Lily is out to get her in order to steal her role - even after Thomas's insistence that the only one standing in the way of Nina's greatness is herself.  The result is a completely enthralling and exhilarating descent into Nina's madness that words cannot fully describe; it just has to be experienced.  "Black Swan" will get into your head and under your skin... and Nina's uncontrollable quest for perfection is at times both disturbing and liberating.  But if I had to sum up this thrilling masterpiece in one word, I guess I could borrow the last line Nina utters after delivering the best performance of her life: "Perfect.  Just perfect."


5 out of 5 stars