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Black Swan Movie Review

Black Swan is a 2010 psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman. It’s a familiar, but very well made and effective movie.

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“The only person standing in your way is you“

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Nina, a ballerina, gets the chance to play the White Swan, Princess Odette. But she finds herself slipping into madness when Thomas, the artistic director, decides that Lily might fit the role better. This film is in its story, visuals and tone the quintessential, though not the best Aronofsky vehicle. When you think of him, you will think of this one for sure. The psychological elements were so effective here with some of the imagery being striking and memorably horror-inspired.

This was the film that brought Natalie Portman her Oscar and deservedly so. She was excellent in this role that is honestly quite underwritten. I expected stronger character development in a film that focuses so heavily on Nina and her journey. But Portman elevated the role with a commendable, confident performance that is both very emotionally versatile and physically demanding. She was thoroughly believable in the first half when she was more demure and also in the second half when she was genuinely unhinged.

The movie features a ton of typecasting in the supporting roles, but I did not mind this as these people were obviously perfect for these types of roles. Vincent Cassel was a natural fit for this abusive director while Barbara Hershey was so well cast in the role of the domineering mother. Mila Kunis stole the movie from these two in the role of her friend and biggest competition. The scenes between the two were easily the most entertaining ones of the bunch.

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Black Swan is at its best during those deranged moments. The psychological thriller elements were gloriously over-the-top and melodramatic while also being superbly shot, scored and directed. Aronofsky has always been a perfect fit for this genre and his directing on this movie is among his best undoubtedly.

The movie is very well edited and paced, continuously being engaging to watch and at times even riveting. The ending worked for me, though I realize how some may find it frustrating. The imagery made this movie what it is, which is wonderfully surreal and ambiguous in quality. The film has that calm before the storm effect that made it very successful.

It deserved most of its Oscar nominations and critical praise with one caveat and that is the screenplay. I have to say that I find Black Swan to be pretty much the meeting of two similarly themed movies released previously – ‘The Red Shoes’ and ‘Perfect Blue’. The ballet scenes were very similar to the former classic and the overall story beats were almost the same while the thriller/horror elements and the double imagery were pretty much directly taken from the latter anime. It loses points for being so unoriginal for me.

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