A journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect.
WHAT I LIKED: Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan,' is a sickening horror about a woman being driven to insanity by the expectations of the world around her. The world in question is the high-pressure environment of professional ballet, and the woman is the young Nina (Natalie Portman) who desperately longs to be cast as the lead in Swan Lake.
Her repellent, predatory instructor Thomas (Vincent Cassel) admires her as a pure, virgin white swan, but chooses her for the central role in the hope she can also be corrupted into the damaged, sexy black swan as well. Nina is vulnerable because she puts so much pressure on herself, but during her training, Thomas belittles her, pits her carefree understudy (Mila Kunis) against her, and tries to get her drinking, partying and letting loose, all so she can fulfill both of the roles that he desires.
That's a brilliant commentary on the contradictory, misogynist expectations placed on young women, and the way Natalie Portman portrays the effects on Nina makes for a truly heartbreaking watch (as does the tragic portrayal of her predecessor by Winona Ryder). But also, the film increasingly externalises her struggle with frightening surrealism; from flashing visions of retaliatory violence where the lines between reality and delusion increasingly blur, to the metaphor of a black swan literally breaking from behind Nina's cracking, bleeding skin. That all culminates in the final performance where she blossoms into the Black Swan in one gigantic triumph for Thomas, but a night of emotional and physical torture for Nina.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It is a truly hopeless, unrelenting tragedy that offers no light at the end of the tunnel for Nina.
VERDICT: 'Black Swan,' is a viscerally horrific portrayal of the effects of expectation and misogyny. The result is a tough but brilliant watch.
