Does this visually twisted and emotionally haunting film strike all the right notes? Find out in our Black Swan movie review.
Story
A dedicated dancer, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is committed to taking the main stage at a New York City ballerina studio, but struggles to climb the ranks with her timid attitude. Auditions have begun taking place for the studios production of Swan Lake and while artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) envisions her as the perfect choice for the innocent white swan, another dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis) is the personification of the sensual and sinful second half of the role, the Black Swan. Nina, hungry for the roll, begins a personal transformation into her dark subconscious.
Characters
Nina lives in a small apartment with her overbearing mother who is trying to push her to the success that she herself failed to reach in her dance career. When Nina is given the role, her mother is overcome with jealousy and begins to hinder her progress in the company. She torments Nina to be the perfect daughter that she envisions. Nina retaliates against this abuse by embracing the archetypes of the black swan. Struggling to build confidence with her new outlook on life, she begins seeing manifestations of these expectations. Manifestations of what she is to become in order to successfully portray the role. The manifestations heighten as Nina stresses over Lily stealing her role. Lily sees Nina idolizing her own carefree attitude and takes her under her wing, teaching her to loosen up for the role. This, of course, leads to the erotic embrace everyone has been talking about.
Special Effects / Gore
The effects of Nina’s transformation get progressively more intense as her attitude changes. Most effects are achieved with decent CG, while others are costume and makeup effects. I would have liked to see a more physical approach to the scenes of torture and self mutilation, but it’s not a movie that strives to be disturbing, probably a choice made to draw larger numbers at the box office.
Final Score
Everyone in the production is on their ‘A’ game. The story is twisted visually and even more emotionally haunting. I think they could have pushed the envelope a little further with the disturbing industry and that would have had a greater impact on the overall production, but they were probably pressured to make the 14A rating. Minor complaints aside, ‘Black Swan’ is still a slow burn that will share a special connection to anyone who has ever felt the need to let their inner ‘Hyde’ take over.
