With the Golden Globes nearing and the Academy Awards just over the horizon, I thought we'd look at what Hollywood has to offer us for the best of 2010 according to some of its critics. Today, our focus is on the psychological drama Black Swan.
Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a ballet dancer for a company on the verge of falling apart under its director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). Desperate to save it, Leroy decides to start his own production of the ballet Swan Lake and picks Nina as the lead of the Swan Queen. Though Nina's dedication to the portrayal of the White Swan is evident through her timid and innocent personality, she struggles to capture the performance of the more alluring Black Swan while dealing with the emotional pressure of Leroy and her perfectionist mother (Barbara Hershey). But with the arrival of Lily, (Mila Kunis) a more rebellious dancer who may have her eye on the lead role, Nina begins to psychologically breakdown while fighting to claim perfection in her work.
Every actor pulls their weight, though truly this is Portman's movie. In her career as an actress, we've seen her range from the naïve to the seductive, but here she's able to show us a convincing evolution through the entire spectrum. She goes from the puppy dog eyes to the casual temptress in a memorable role both on stage and on screen. Portman and the other performers within this piece show thorough and detailed choreography to their dancing that would convince you they've been practising all their lives for this production.
The visual symbolism is excellent throughout the film and practically everywhere you turn. It's in the set background, the dialogue, the camera work and the wonderful use of shadows and lighting. Every actor plays off each other's roles with remarkable charm, with Cassel as the authoritative director and Kunis as a great counterpart against the character of Nina. Sexual tension presses against the boundaries in this film and everyone mixes well with each other.
Black Swan shows the audience the emotional and physical endurance of the ballet mentioned off and on, but never fully captured until now. Through the eyes of this innocent girl, viewers will receive a story that moves as gracefully and emotionally as the ballet itself. The basis of using Swan Lake to analyze the psychology of this one ballet dancer was a perfect choice in capturing the frustration of it all.
It's a beautiful psychological masterpiece complimented by a fantastic score that only Tchaikovsky himself could provide to balance the scenes of the ballet with the mood of the story everywhere you look. Its perspective of a competing for perfection makes for a story that jumps over and back across the line of the dramatic and the terrifying.
Who says ballet has to be just for women?
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