Fresh from the success of his great film "The Wrestler", Aronofsky has delivered another daring, gritty display of human psychological emotion. Whilst "The Wrestler" focuses on a character who striving to reclaim his former glorly, "Black Swan" tells the dark story of a character out to achieve glory for the first time. This is a dark psychological thriller about the human psyche, and the capacity we have for self-destruction and greed.
From the outset, Aronofsky places us on the stage with Nina (Natalie Portman), who is dreaming about being on the stage in the lights, dancing beautifully and without inhibition. Nina has always been an underachiever who has had to watch from the sidelines as others steal the show. She is eager for her "shot", and is sick of being part of the "extras" who make up the numbers. So it is with excitement when she learns from the company Director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) that there is going to be a new production of the classic "Swan Lake", and that they will be holding castings for the "Swan Queen", a role coveted by every ballet dancer in the company. She faces stiff competion by all the other dancers, in particular young Lily (Mila Kunis). Nina immediately has eyes on the role, and gives it her all during her audition. She is perfect as the "white swan", who is good, pure and righteous. Problem is, her "black swan", a character who is evil and malicious, is less convincing. Believing her audition to be a failure, she rushes home to take comfort in the arms of her mother (Barbara Hershey). We see the pain in her eyes as she believes she's blown her audition, and isn't this something we've all felt? The moment after a bad job interview or when we have expectations that are too high, and there is that inevitable letdown? Nina's pain is real. However, as fate happens, she does inevitably land the role, and is the envy of all her peers as she puts in intense focus amid all the self-doubt that has crept over her.
Nina becomes so intensely focused on her role and on her ambition to succeed in the part that it starts to mess with her mind. She starts to see things that may or not be real, and this all leads her to sink further and futher into psychological madness. It is in this where Aronofosky succeeds as a director: we constantly question if events happening are real or not, and are gripped by the unpredictable events that happen in the movie. There are some very vivid and gritty scenes in this movie, but they serve a purpose to the story and aren't "gritty" just for the sake of it. The dance sequences were also impressive and well portrayed.
Portman gives a solid performance as Nina, though there were at times moments where I felt her reactions to be slightly unconvincing. Kunis and Cassel give good performances as well, but the standout in this movie is Barba Hershey, whose character seems the fullest and more rounded. She is shown to be loving and caring, but there are also times where she lashes out at her daughter's behaviour. She is worried for her, and we see that in a compassionate, yet sometimes frustrated, way. The production design of this movie was also cleverly done in that we are constantly seeing the contrasts in colours and lighting between "black" and "white", the constant themes of "light/good" and "dark/bad". The musical score keeps to a classical theme. And because the music is about "Swan Lake", which was written by Tchaikovsky, that only makes it better. From a technical stand point, this film is strong.
This film focuses on the extent of the human limit, the "dark" and "light in all of us. And we are forced to ask the question: how far can we go to succeed? Humans are indeed capable of anything, and this movie shows it.
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