Now, I went to see Black Swan the other day and I’m finding it harder than usual to give this one a score. It’s one of the better tough decisions to have to make however. It’s not like I’m trying to decide to give it one star or two!
Black Swan is what you’d probably call a dramatic thriller. It’s creepy, intoxicating, sexy, powerful and at times breathtaking. It has its jumpy moments, its touching moments and its just plain creepy moments.
The story focuses on ballet dancer Nina Sayers, played by Natalie Portman, I’ll get to her performance a little later. Nina is the most meticulously perfect dancer in the group. From the beginning we see that she’s particularly obsessed with the play ‘Swan Lake’, to the point where she’s dreaming about playing the main part in the production.
Naturally her dance studio announce they are doing Swan Lake this season and they need a new lead role. The prospective lead role will need to be able to play both the White Swan and the Black Swan, given that they are identical in terms of appearance, all be it one black and one white. I’m not sure if this is the norm for Swan Lake, I haven’t seen it but the choreographer says it’s new, I’m not totally sure it is but we’ll go along with it.
Nina, being the perfect dancer is the obvious choice, however chief choreographer Thomas decides she doesn’t possess the darker, more wild side needed to play the Black Swan. Dismayed by his choice Nina comes into work in an attempt to get Thomas to reconsider, but he informs her that he has already made his decision and chosen another girl to play the lead. Deflated, Nina attempts to leave but Thomas stops her, kisses her and receives a chomping bite for his troubles. I should at this point say that Thomas is quite possibly the sleaziest character you’ll see on screen. It’s so over the top it’s almost unreal. He’s played by Vincent Cassel of European cinema fame, who does a good job of bringing out every single drop of arrogance and womanising sleaze from the character.
I should also say at this point: Spoilers!
After the biting incident, Thomas decides he has seen something in her that suggests she can actually play both roles. He chooses her and thus let the crazy bizarre antics begin. The main premise of the movie is the journey Nina goes through as she transforms into the wild Black Swan. It gets a bit freaky to say the least.
As the movie progresses we see Nina being stalked by what appears to be a dark version of herself, and she appears to be slowly transforming into a swan. I think the movie tries to keep you guessing whether or not she is actually turning into a swan, but I think I can safely assume most people watching will get that it’s just artistic imagery to show Nina’s progression of personal transformation.
This isn’t Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, it’s a different transformation. It’s Nina’s metamorphosis of her core characteristics from pure to tainted. Nina starts off this movie as a ‘white as snow’ character. Still living with her mother, being treated like a child, acting like a child would, no boys in her life, no friends, totally pure. As the film goes on, and as she slowly starts to fill into the Black Swan’s role, you see small changes in her character that slowly start to break the White Swan mould she came from.
Her mother was a former ballerina who gave up to be a parent and so lives through her daughter. She is overprotective to the extreme, constantly calling Nina and treating her like a child. It’s easy to see how Nina became such a White Swan. Nina’s room is full of stuffed toys, is very white and very bright; it looks like a eleven-year-old’s bedroom. As the film progresses and Nina starts to rebel against her mother she throws all her soft toys out in the garbage. This movie is full of symbolic gestures such as these.
As the movie continues Nina sees herself literally turning into a swan. She finds black feathers sprouting from her back, her toes start webbing together and you even see her neck elongate at one point, not to mention her legs. I’m sure all of this would be fine enough to deal with but no she has to be stalked by an evil version of herself too. Excellent.
This whole movie is filled with things that aren’t necessarily happening. She ends up seeing Lily, another member of the cast, as an evil character out to get her role. Whether that is true or not is debateable, but Lily is certainly seen as a threat since she does possess everything needed to play the Black Swan. Yes, you’ve guessed it, Lily is a wild one who helps Nina come out of her shell and embrace the world of the White Swan’s nemesis.
As the movie starts to gain momentum the transformation becomes complete on stage in the best scene in the film. Nina enters her dressing room to find Lily sat at her mirror. They argue and fight for a while until Nina slams Lily into the wall mirror and kills her! She then dumps her in the bathroom and heads out for the next act. She gets out on stage and whilst twirling (sorry ballet fans I know that’s probably not the word) she starts to gain black feathers, then massive wings until eventually she is a full swan right there on stage. The camera cuts to the front shot, and we see Nina, stood as Nina, not a swan, with two giant swan-like silhouetted shadows in the background. It’s amazing; breathtaking cinema in fact.
Nina leaves the stage again with the rousing cheer ringing in her ears. She enters her dressing room and finds blood seeping underneath the door of her bathroom. Poor Lily. Does she care? Not at all. But then there’s a knock at the door, can you guess who it is? Yep, it’s Lily who congratulates her on her performance. Obviously bemused Nina heads to the bathroom, removes the towel she put there and sees the blood is now gone. She opens the door, Lily’s once lifeless body has disappeared and yet the mirror is still broken.
Nina looks down to find it is her with a large shard of glass inside her. She stabbed herself in an attempt of release. This brings the final scene where Nina finds herself looking on at the prince and falling to her death. She lands on the mattress of course but the wound is still there and blood starts staining her white outfit. It is here where the film ends, Nina is released from her horrid prison, through death, just as the character she plays does. How fitting.
And that’s it. Story over, and overall I’d have to say it’s solid three star stuff. But that’s not entirely how this movie should be judged. Yes, the story is very basic but the cinematography, performances, and imagery along with everything else all bring the story to life, getting more out of it than you’d think possible.
Director, Darren Aronofsky, has clearly put a considerable amount of effort into this movie. The imagery of the transformation, and the claustrophobic nature of the filming means it gets very intimate with the characters, using many close ups and sticking close to them throughout. You rarely see a long shot, it keeps you deep inside the film, dragging you in and keeping you hooked. In the final scenes you barely know the audience is there.
The settings are very much grimy places: backstage, in the dance halls, in corridors, out on streets, they’re all very dark grungy places. Which makes the lavish locations: on stage, at the opening party etc seem extravagant and artificial. It’s all brilliantly shot by the director and the best part is the fact he lets the characters really blossom out there.
Which brings me onto the performances. All are good, but it’s Natalie Portman’s performance that grabs you and transfixes you to this movie. Without it this movie would be no more than an average flick. She’s just excessively good, and she needs to be really. Her acting is convincing, and it’s not just the ballet she’s good at. She captures all the innocence of Nina’s early character and yet conveys all the fear, horror, and eventual hardened callousness of her later character with all the torn emotions in-between just as meticulously as Nina herself. You see all the emotion pouring from her and more noticeably the lack of it towards the end, where she kills Lily. Her performance really is five star stuff, expect her to win the Oscar.
However, it’s not all great stuff. It takes a little while to get into it, and there are a few boring moments early on where you just want the film to get going. I was worried it was going to turn out awful, thankfully it didn’t. Another nit-pick is that some parts in the movie are predictable. For example, as soon as she kills Lily and goes back on stage I’m already thinking: ‘okay walk into Lily’. When she walks off stage: ‘okay bump into Lily now’. Upon walking into her dressing room: ‘Lily’s in there…no’. Knock knock: ‘ah there she is!’. It’s obvious. Also Nina moves house apparently half way through the movie. Figure that one out.
Overall it’s difficult to judge. I’ve seen so many five star awards for this film and I must admit I’m tempted to do the same. As I said, the story on its own is three star stuff, but the performances are five star, it deserves points for sheer artistry as well as the soundtrack (Clint Mansell of The Fountain fame). The last half hour of the movie is immense, deserving of five stars, and yet the earlier scenes in the movie drift in and out of three and four star status. So overall, going off this stupid logic I just made up, I’m going with a solid four stars.
Final verdict: 4 Stars.
Pirouette! It’s called a pirouette! I knew it was in there somewhere!
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