Black Swan. What can I say about Black Swan?
Well, let me start with this: I work a really odd shift that usually runs from early morning to early afternoon, leaving my afternoon open to go to the movies since the rest of the world is still at work. Usually, I find myself in a theater full of old people with a smattering of college students, then I imagine that someday when I am old I will have every afternoon to go to the movies without the inconvenience of going to work before. I went to see The King's Speech twice and both times, I found a theater full of old people and college aged girls who I assume were there for Colin Firth. When I went to see Black Swan on a decidedly deserted afternoon at Santikos Palladium, I was in the theater with one old couple, one middle-aged couple and three women who did not stop talking or picking up THE DAMN PHONE!!! Bitches, you paid the money, you climbed all the way to the top row so you could walk in front of me every ten minutes in the almost empty theater and you're talking. Not even about the movie that much! What I was trying to say before I got sidetracked there was that it's not exactly commercial fare. I'm not saying that because of the weird semi-Lesbian thing or even Darren Aronofsky's somewhat gratuitous fixation on Natalie Portman's crotch. It is because it's actually weird. And not in a bad way.
Natalie Portman plays Nina, a ballerina obsessed with perfection. She seems to be living out her mother's failed ambitions as a ballerina and everything about her says that she's a child still. The auteur master of the ballet company, Thomas, played by Vincent Cassel is putting on a new Swan Lake and is looking for a Swan Queen. Her main competition is a new dancer to the company, Lily, played by Mila Kunis. Lily is everything Nina isn't, confident in the role of the Black Swan, which Nina struggles with. In order to be the Swan Queen, she has to let go of her need to feel perfect. We follow Nina as she finds the way to transform into the Black Swan.
Okay, I won't spoil this one. I will say that Aronofsky's direction is pretty damn near perfect. What struck me first was the camera work, the way it's so dizzying and you feel everything Nina feels. Natalie Portman gives a brilliant performance, the anxiety and desperation that Nina feels is so taut. Cassel is great, the role of somewhat womanizing ballet company master could easily come off as piggish, but he avoids it. We don't hate him so much that we don't recognize everything he's saying about Nina is correct. Barbara Hershey as Nina's mom is great, making the audience guess if she's good or bad. Mila Kunis has her first grown up role and it makes me want to forgive her for being on Family Guy.
What really impresses me is the way that we get sucked into the ballet world. A lot of films made by lesser filmmakers would have bored us with ballet details and boring exposition. Black Swan avoids this and even when ballet stuff gets put in there it doesn't feel contrived and we don't feel as if the story has stopped. What I couldn't believe was happening was in several scenes was that when Portman dances and is inadequate and I could tell she was unlike so many velvet curtain dramas where the audience has to be told, due no doubt to Aronofsky's direction and the actors' performances. I would link a clip to demonstrate this, but somebody at YouTube decided to disable embedding, so just head over there and search for Black Swan clip. This is definitely a trip inside Nina's head, replete with spectacular visual effects to complement rather than detract from the performances. We get to know Nina so well that by the time the film reaches its conclusion, it's foregone.
Best Picture? I don't know. I still kind of think The King's Speech has it. It is excellent, but it's like the 1998 Oscar race where Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan, the choice is between totally different animals. One being a swan. I still have to see the other nominees, but Natalie Portman gives such an intense performance, I don't know how it could be topped. Any opinions out there on that?
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