Black Swan
Cinema Nova, 20/01/2011
Movie #6 for 2011
Nina (NATALIE PORTMAN) is the fragile, meek prima ballerina in her company’s production of Swan Lake. She has the grace to play the white swan, but lacks the self-assurance and sexuality to play the flipside of the coin in the black swan. Early signs that all is not well with Nina – her troubled relationship with her mother, her distance from other dancers – are intriguing and Portman’s performance soon enveloped me in a creepy little world of imbalance.
But that imbalance tips too far too soon for me and though I really liked where Black Swan was heading early on, but didn’t really love what it skidded sideways into, the inventive creepiness giving way to too-conventional horror (so that I felt gypped about being creeped out).
Good on director DARREN ARONOFSKY (The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream) for trying something ambitious and different, but bad luck that it didn’t quite succeed. Despite this, Aronofsky effectively creates a frenetic, unsettling mood and there are glimpses of absolute genius film-making.
