Review: Black Swan

Film award season is upon us, and all the Oscar-worthy movies are vying for our attention.  For myself, I only spend the money on a movie if I really want to see it.  The lure of it being a potential award-winner isn't strong enough to tempt me into the theatre.  Story, subject matter, sometimes a particular actor are what drive me to buy a ticket.  The King's Speech, for example, seemed to be made just for me!  (see review on an earlier post)

That said, I'd been intrigued by the psychological thriller Black Swan, but on the fence about going because I'd heard it billed as a "horror" film, which is not at all my cup of tea.  However, a friend and co-worker, who is himself a dancer, asked me to join him and I was excited at the prospect of seeing a film about the dancing world with someone who knows it from the inside out!

My first reaction at the end of the movie was a huge exhale and a wow... okay, I may've cried a bit too.  But it was intense!  And I was startled by a lot of the action.  I would not call it a horror film at all, though there is a surprising amount of blood.  It certainly is a psychological thriller, no doubt.  The downward spiral of ballerina Nina's sanity as she prepares for the role of a lifetime still has me wondering what, if anything, was real.  Yet, the best way to describe this film, I think, is a tragedy in the nature of Euripides or even Shakespeare.

Nina (played by an absolutely stellar Natalie Portman) is a dancer in a NYC Balanchine-esque company.  She is technically perfect in her movements, but her lack of connection in the moment has thus far kept her from stepping out in one of the principal ballet roles.  Artistic director Thomas (Vincent Cassel) has a new vision for the ballet Swan Lake and needs a prima ballerina to dance both the delicate, trembling White Swan and the lustier, seductive Black Swan.  He has no doubts about Nina's ability to play the pristine embodiment of perfection, but of her darker mirror-image he frankly tells her he is not as certain.

Nina wants the role badly enough to convince Thomas that there is a spark of sensuality in her and when the cast list goes up, she gets the plum roles.  One would think that is where all the stress begins, but the screenplay cleverly gives hints of her precarious mental state from the very beginning.  Glimpses of the new girl in the company (Mila Kunis) just out of sight... a smothering mother (Barbara Hershey) living her own forestalled dance career through her daughter... an entire world played out in girlish shades of pink and white... scratches and hangnails from compulsive itching and picking... at first it seems rather normal.  We all have our own bad habits and day-to-day stresses, but little by little we are given snatches of darker impulses.

• She steals a lipstick out of the dressing room of the prima ballerina she supplanted (Winona Ryder).
• A suggestion from Thomas to get in touch (literally!) with her sexual side leads to risky sexual encounters.
• Her itching and picking become visions of ripping off her own skin and pulling out quills from her own body.
• She turns on her clingy mother in a rage.
• Every waking moment becomes a paranoia-filled dream that leads to murder.

Or does it?

We find out later in the film that the lipstick isn't the only thing she's stolen from Beth (Ryder).  That living in the insular world of dance with her mother she lives a repressed and stunted existence.  That being a perfectionist opens herself to jealousy and suspicion, which sets the stage for her descent into madness.  By the end of the film neither Nina nor the audience knows what's real and what's not.  Honestly, I'm still not convinced in my own mind that the ending is all it seems to be.  (I'm resisting the urge to tell too much of the ending - it really should be experienced without knowing too much in advance!)

The Golden Globe Awards were handed out this past weekend, and Natalie Portman was named Best Actress in a Drama, and I think the award well-deserved.  She was in every scene and brought the audience with her along for this tragic roller-coaster ride.  I couldn't wait for the movie to be over to ask my friend how convincing she was as a ballerina.  He agreed to me that she did a credible job of it.  Granted, much of her dancing was shot from the waist up, but there is still a posture that requires the bottom half to work as hard as the top half even if you don't see it.  I imagine a probable Oscar nomination, and a very possible win for her.

Milas Kunis was the enigmatic and alluring Lily, a free-spirit that plays like a bad-girl of dance.  Her natural sensuality both makes Nina paranoid and intrigued by her.

Barbara Hershey was the erstwhile dancer in the corps de ballet who gave up her career to have Nina.  She gave up her own future as a dancer to live every moment for her daughter and her dance career.  Even as old as Nina is (mid-20s, I imagine), we see Mom clipping her daughter's nails, taking out her earrings and practically tucking her in to bed each night as she winds the music box that plays the theme from Swan Lake, as if listening to it as she goes to bed each night will ensure Nina one day dances the role of the Swan Queen.

Vincent Cassel plays Thomas, the artistic director with the daring vision of the White Swan and the Black Swan as two sides of the same coin.  I've seen it written that the role is "Balanchine-lite," an imitation of what has been reported as the management style of the great choreographer who would pit dancers against each other and replace older dancers with younger ones.

Winona Ryder's role as Beth the displaced prima ballerina is small, but pivotal.  While Ms. Ryder doesn't actually dance in the film, the audience is given to believe that in Beth's heyday she was the Maria Callas of ballet, a dancer who felt each role to its utmost and danced in the moment.  Her example is what Nina is striving to achieve, but has not yet been able to understand.

One other interesting acting note is that the gentleman who plays David, the Prince in Swan Lake, ultimately fell in love with Natalie Portman, even though his character isn't interested in her in the movie.  His name, Benjamin Millepied, is apropos... a thousand feet!

This is the first film I've watched directed by Darren Aronofsky, so I have nothing with which to compare his work, but I would interested to see another of his films.

A couple of caveats: this film is rated R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use.  I remember hearing that the movie was rated R, but honestly didn't pay attention to it until I was confronted with said sexual and disturbing images (the language and drug use frankly pale in comparison).  I'm not really a prude, but I wasn't prepared for for such visceral sex scenes, and some of the bloody scenes (not necessarily violent though) made me wince and look away.  They're appropriate to the film, but depending on who you're with it might feel a bit on the awkward side.  Just go into it being prepared!

All in all, this is a really good film.  It's weird to say that I "like" it, as it's difficult to find anyone or anything to like in it; but I certainly didn't "dislike" Black Swan at all.  It's never boring and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats the entire 108 minutes of screen time.  Even at that, though, I'm not ready to see it again anytime -- but I have a feeling it will stay with me a long time!

Above picture: Natalie Portman as Nina in Black Swan, a film by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Protozoa Pictures, Phoenix Pictures, in association with Cross Creek Pictures.  Distributed by 20th Century Fox