Summary: A ballet dancer, Nina (Portman) wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile the Black Swan, daughter of an evil magician.
Erm, well we all know Aronofsky can do psychological thriller (Pi was amazing!) but there's something not quite right about this. Not to say it's bad, not at all, but it reminds me of too many things to truly WOW me.
I don't really know how to explain, Portman was convincingly psychologically disturbed, Cassel as the company direct was moody and confusing, Kunis pulled off the Nemesis/best friend part well and Barbara Hershey and Ryder probably could have been cut but were OK. I mean really the plot is really explained above, the film slowly blurs the the edges of Nina's psyche making you question reality, moving more and more towards full out body horror but forever trying to hold onto Nina's fragile sanity.
I found myself questioning everything but still found it all a little predictable. There are issues of performance anxiety, sexuality, repression and confrontation and to be completely honest it all feels a little too French. The themes echo of Cache, The Piano Teacher and Natalie but Aronofsky is trying to hard to mainstream it and it never really gets under your skin. The pacing was good but the focus on Nina's inner psyche was not as intense as it should have been and it all ends up falling abit flat.
I admit, I am awkwardly sitting on the fence with this one, it's never gonna make my all time favourite film list but it was visually impressive, the cinematography was gritty and edgy and there was actual film grain! Yes, I know these qualities are becoming more European traits but it was nice to see a film take a step back from the big budget digital productions. The style, in many ways, reminds me of Diva which is so beautiful I watch it about once every 6 months.
Overall: Could have been a European masterpiece but something got lost in translation. 3.5 out of 5.
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