Black Swan

BLACK SWAN
FOX
RELEASED 21 January 2011

Nina (Natalie Portman) is part of a New York City ballet company, patiently waiting for a lead role to come up. When the prima ballerina (Winona Ryder) retires, Nina gets her chance. But the pressure of starring in Swan Lake seems to get to her, with her domineering mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) and a competitive newcomer (Mila Kunis) only compounding the situation. With an incresingly fragile mind, Nina’s reality and fantasy world start to bleed into one another, putting Nina onto a disturbing, dangerous path.

Portman has already received critical acclaim for her starring role in this horror thriller, and although I think the emotional content of the film mainly involves her to look frightened/agonised, she does throw herself into the role. I could tell that she didn’t perform all of the dancing (clever camera angles and effects cover the cracks), but to my untrained eye, she certainly looks like a ballerina (small and skinny – great acting). Elsewhere, Nina’s mother is played with controlled lunacy by Hershey, and Vincent Cassell smears some Gallic smarm on top.

I’m not quite sure what the film is supposed to be getting at. It’s mainly horror (mirrors, evil twins, body dismorphia) with some pseudo mother-love babble. I enjoyed it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not overblown nonsense! It’s not scary, I didn’t feel any empathy for any of the characters, but I did enjoy it on a visual level (director Aronofsky made ‘The Fountain’ and is lined up next for a Japanese-set Wolverine sequel).

FOUR OUT OF FIVE