Vincent Cassel | The Visionary Film Fanatic

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel

It would be an incredible hard task to market a movie like this, you have to attract an audience and not ruin the movie in the trailers or other marketing, it did succeed at marketing it well. What really attracted me to this movie originally was the fact the it was a Darren Aronofsky film, he is one of my favorite directors right now, and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out since it was about ballet. What it ended up being was a tense physiological horror movie that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It is easy to admit to this but Natalie Portman deserved the Oscar that she did win, she isn;t my favorite actress but she can surprise me sometimes, for the role of Nina Sayers. It is good to see the Academy to award the right person for the awards which doesn’t happen all the time, like Rooney Mara. What Darren Aronofsky has done is created a movie that is both emotionally and physiologically daunting, which he is good at like Pi or Requiem for a Dream, and a movie that has fascinated me every time that I’ve watched it.

Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side – a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

What I find interesting about this movie is that it makes a good example of over perfection and how people will always try to be perfect and will do anything to obtain it. She is desperate to to obtain perfection in her role that she becomes crazy, hallucinating and doing things she would never have done before she got the role. Mila Kunis plays the polar opposite of Nina perfectly, she is essential what Nina needs to be to fill the role of the Black Swan, I am surprised she didn’t receive an Oscar nomination. The ending, I think is the most important because it is a showcase of Nina essential killing off the good side of her personality and full embracing the bad side. It was a perfect way to end the film and it shows, even at her death she did all for perfection and her dying words showcase exactly that. I truly find it hard to write a lot about the film, but thats just my perspective, and I know for a fact that there is a lot that can be written about it, if you take the time to analyze it, which is not what I am doing. I find this movie to be something that everyone should experience but it may be to much for some people. One of the best movies of 2010 and my third favorite of that year.

9.5 out of 10

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