Review of Black Swan (2010) by Albertus A — 14 Nov 2015

Stepping into familiar territory, Aronofsky crafts, yet another wonderful psychological drama, which although split audience opinion, ultimately solidified itself, critically, as an essential genre piece.

Nina is a fragile and tormented ballet dancer, who strikes it lucky when her dance company decides to drop its main star, in favor of a younger face, for its massive production of Swan Lake. Overwhelmed by her position, Nina soon buckles under the pressure and the production is thrown into turmoil, as Nina struggles to differentiate between reality and imagination.

Black Swan is very much a character piece, with its success purely dependent on lead actress Natalie Portman, who thankfully does a wonderful job, bringing the character of Nina so perfectly to life, Portman actually vanishes as Nina takes the fore front.

Its a stunning performance, that merges dangerous desperation, with a fragility that is heart braking to watch. That's not to say the rest of the cast do a bad job, Cassell, Kunis and Hershey do a grand job, supplying a host of melodramatic, but essential characters for Nina to surround herself with, however Winona Ryder may actually be the best casting, in a long time, with her brief but wonderful performance as Beth, the washed up star who is dropped in favor of Nina, it's a genius decision to cast an actress who once had the world at her finger tips, and her performance steps Black Swan up a few notches.

It's a wonderful, stylistic affair, with Aronofsky injecting a brilliant and invigorating sense of psychosis, Black Swan looks utterly stunning from start to finish, blurring the lines between reality with some bizarre visual effects and make up work.

Impressive moments see Nina transform, as she glides through her performance, with shimmering wings and blood red eyes, it's visually arresting to witness her transformation, made even more powerful by Portman's ability to hammer home a sterling performance.

Black Swan can at points feel like your stuck in a whirlwind and by the end, you will feel slightly thrown about and pretty disorientated, however upon multiple viewings, clarity will start to prevail.

The script does at points feel rather forced, with some cringe worthy dialogue floating about from time to time, and although the film is well orchestrated, it does feel like a selection of scenes could have been added to strengthen its overall presentation.

Overall, Black Swan is hardly ground braking, however Aronofsky's ability to craft a visually stunning and emotionally charged, psychological piece, with superb performances and a wonderful score, makes Black Swan a true accomplishment in film making.