Black Swan
Genre:
surrealistic horror
With: Natalie
Portman (Nina Sayers), Mila Kunis (Lily), Vincent Cassel (Thomas Leroy),
Barbara Hershey (Erica Sayers, Nina’s mother), Winona Ryder (Beth Macintyre),
Benjamin Millepied (David)
Director: Darren
Aronofsky
Release: 2010
Studio: Protozoa
Pictures, Phoenix Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures et al.
Rating: 14A
MBiS score: 7.2/10
Killing Two Birds
With One Single Movie
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Story-line: a New York City ballet company faces turbulent times as it prepares for the
new season. Nina, a dedicated dancer, hopes for more prominent roles, Beth, the
prima ballerina, is unceremoniously sacked, ballet master Leroy plans a radical
new production of Swan Lake and the hiring
of Lily from San Francisco makes waves among the troupe.
Pluses: a brutal
look at the disciplined and pressure-filled world of ballet dancers, an
outstanding turn by Natalie Portman and able support from Mila Kunis and
Vincent Cassel, impressive choreography,
photography and music, topline production values and a startling screenplay (early
on).
Minuses: an overstuffed,
implausible and excruciating last act in which all hell breaks loose. During
those 25 minutes or so, I laughed out loud several times – never a good sign
for a ‟serious” movie – and hoped it would all end pronto.
Comments:
BLACK SWAN, a celebrated film about nerves and nightmares, unfortunately
suffers from a split personality à la Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As lovely and
vibrant as it is in the first act – for which it deserved an 8.4 – it morphs
into the campy, sleazy, self-aggrandizing affair it was aiming to be all along.
You’ll find lots of angst and uproar here but not much human value, the
yardstick against which I judge every movie. I hope you’ll like it more than I
did.
MBiS
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