Black Swan (Review)



 

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I don’t quite know where to start with Black Swan, but perhaps it is best to say that it fell short of what I expected. There are great things going for it, but there are also many turn-offs, well at least for me. So let’s start with the good things, and well end with the bad stuff.

My favorite part of the film has got to be the score. I loved Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, and it was mainly due to the very powerful score by Clint Mansell. They team up again for this film, and the result is another masterpiece soundtrack. The music was never over the top, and always worked well with what was going on on-screen. It was a subtle score, and very gracefully placed throughout the film, which goes well with the ballet theme of the movie. Clint Mansell might go as far as to win an Academy Award this year, and with good reason.

Lighting was a huge factor for this picture, and I do say that it worked magnificently with the camera movements and angles. One scene in particular, when Nina (Portman) is practicing by herself on-stage, and there is one round light fixture alone in the center. That scene worked beautifully because of it’s wide shot, and somehow alluded to how isolated Nina was becoming in her obsession of being perfect. The camera moved well for most part of the film, but the lighting made ballet more than art, and elevated the beauty of the body’s movement to incalculable measure. I felt like I was in a dream.

The acting is always a huge part for movies, and can often make or break the entire movie regardless of the amount of work put into the whole production. In this film there are several outstanding performances. One of course is the centerpiece of this movie, and perhaps the only reason many might go see this movie or even enjoy for that reason. Natalie Portman plays Nina, a perfectionist dancer who becomes obsessed with getting right the black swan character she has to play in a production of Swan Lake. In then end becoming too much for her own sanity. Portman is completely transformed for this role, and shows an extreme range. I loved her performance, and though most of the performance is rather physical than emotional, she triumphs overall. This could truly be called the performance of her lifetime. I could not believe the stunts she performed in this and the way she portrayed innocence at the beginning of the film which just blew me away. Still she should not win the Oscar for Best Actress this year, but should come close to it, simply because most of her performance is physical.

Another performance that was well put was that of Barbara Hershey. She plays Erica Sayers, the mother who in my own opinion was just as crazy as her daughter, which that in way reminded me immediately of Carrie. Hershey is a ruthless mother, yet caring and perhaps too over protective. Thought I wished the writers had given her more in the film, Hershey still gives a performance worthy of recognition.

Perhaps another shorter part in the film was that of Beth Macintyre played by Winona Ryder. In my opinion she captivated me more than Portman when on-screen. Again for some reason I wished I had seen more of her and less of Nina. Winona plays a retired dancer who struggles to accept the end of her career and in part also inspires Nina to get the role of the Swan Queen right. Winona is back and thank God for she was much missed in the world of good filmmaking and acting. I loved her presence, and to me stole the movie.

Going back to the characters, I hated the fact that all the characters were very unreal except for Beth, who plays a minor part in the film. They all seemed to be on some sort of medication and had forgotten to take it throughout the entire course of the movie. I love realism and horror films, but Black Swan fell awkwardly in between, and therefore didn’t impress me as much as I wanted. All the characterd were very disturbed, and wished they had been a bit more real, or maybe I’m confused since the film could have just been through Nina’s perspective. I don’t know, either way it was kind of unclear, and that didn’t appeal to me like it has in other films such as Inception.

All the supporting characters are very minor and the writers didn’t do enough with them, specially the mother who could have had a bigger role and maybe even made the movie better.

I won’t say that the movie didn’t make me jump once, but it only did so once. So what is this movie classified as? A psychological thriller? Well, it felt like the movie was trying to be a horror movie, and a drama, but just didn’t quite reach either territory. Also the direction in some of the scenes was very cheap and not skillful at all. I mean why was groping shown more than needed throughout the entire movie? Why was the self-mutilation there, just like that, when it could have been played, with, differently? How about the masturbation scenes? Did we really need to see Nina masturbating more than once to get that she was loosing her innocence? I don’t think so, and the way those things (like the sex scene between Lily and Nina) are what I like to call cheap. Just place a camera still and show everything. Doesn’t call for much skill from the director or anyone besides the actors.

Throughout the film Nina goes crazy and looses herself and what she initially believes in. She literally becomes the black swan, and (spoiler alert) kills herself. But one knows this before even watching the movie, in fact nothing is surprising in this film. Oh, and the ending was very disappointing. Then again they probably couldn’t have ended it any other way.

This film is good for the sole reason of Portman, and other technical aspects, but would not recommend it to anyone besides people who are into ballet. This is a very ineffective movie in the sense that it is made to appeal to a very narrow audience, so not everyone will enjoy it. In my opinion don’t go see it unless you absolutely love everything Natalie Portman has done, because what she does here might be the best part of the entire movie.

All in all Black Swan just fell short of all the hype, and didn’t work for me.

Black Swan