Superb attention to detail...
> Black Swan
4 stars (out of 5)
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Thomas Leroy, Barbara Hershey
Rating: (R16)
Professional ballerina in the New York Ballet Company Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) hankers after the lead role in Swan Lake.
Nina still lives at home with her domineering mother, an eerily unhinged Barbara Hershey, and lives out her mother's failed dream, her life consumed by dance.
When she is overlooked for the role of swan queen, securing instead that of the black swan, she starts to undergo a metamorphosis of her own.
Nina's world is turned upside down when confronted with the physical manifestation of her own suppressed alter ego, Lily (Mila Kunis).
Pitched by director Darren Aronofsky as a companion piece to The Wrestler, Black Swan does revolve around another physical discipline, but that is where similarities get murky; he seems more interested in plying us with unused tricks from earlier masterpiece Requiem for a Dream.
The dancing is superb, Portman's picture of frailty is mesmerising and such is Aronofsky's skill with the super-real, it's difficult to tell where the reality stops and Nina's twisted consciousness begins. Freud would approve. Don't expect any epiphany, either. Black Swan's triumphs are in visual excellence and ambiguity.
Best thing: Attention to detail. The dancing sequences are so good it's hard to see where the actors finish and their doubles take over.
Worst thing: Trying to cover too many genres in one piece.
See it with: Any fan of a visual spectacle. The plot might leave you guessing, but the images linger long after the final frame has faded.
- Mark Orton
