Black Swan

Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Dir. Darren Aronofsky
Scr. Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz & John McLaughlin

I didn’t want to see this film – it just didn’t look terribly good. Then so many good reviews and so many awards and so many nominations (including Oscar for Best Picture), and it was like the universe was telling me to see it. And now, well, I wish I’d gone with my first instinct and thumbed my nose at the universe! I am flying in the face of an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I know, but this is an overlong, clichéd, uncomfortable, melodramatic (not in a good way) film with a lead character I absolutely didn’t care about. Disappointing and, more than that, just plain frustrating.

Black Swan tells the story of Nina (Portman), a talented young ballerina, desperate to shine and land the part of the Swan Queen in a modern interpretation of Swan Lake. Nina lives and breathes ballet, punishing her body and her life in the hope of being the perfect ballerina. But although Nina is talented, she is all “white swan” – fragile, pure – and not at all “black swan” – sensual, manipulative, dark. Despite this, she lands the part and it’s all downhill from there. A suffocating mother (Hershey), a punishing ballet director (Cassel), a young challenger (Kunis), an older vision of what she might become (Ryder), her own expectations of perfection – all these factors combine to send Nina down the rabbit hole and, as you might expect, tragedy ensues.

Okay, before I launch into what made me really dislike this film, let me praise it a little. Like Aronofsky’s previous film, The Wrestler, the viewer is immersed into a very specialised world, in this case, the crazy world of ballet. Stripped back from the glamour, most of the action takes place in the cold, bare practise rooms (not dissimilar from the gym setting of The Wrestler). It’s effective film making. Also effective is the way the ballet scenes are filmed. Instead of having an audience’s view, we are taken up close and hear every pant and intake of breath, every creak and crack of joints – it’s simultaneously compelling and uncomfortable, something Aronofsky has quite the talent for. In terms of acting, I would single out Kunis (as the young upstart Lily), who really does shine. I also have to acknowledge the amount of work Portman obviously put into this role – you could mistake her for a career ballerina who has decided to act, rather than the other way around.

That’s about it. My real criticism of this film is three-fold. First up, it was very difficult to watch. And I’m not an inexperienced film-goer, no sir. By way of comparison, I thought Precious was an amazing, compelling, startling film. Would I want to see it again? No way. Probably the most uncomfortable I’ve been in a theatre. In Black Swan, there seems to be no real reward for such discomfort and the shock value of some scenes were just that – shock. Secondly, what a cliché! Backstabbing ballerinas who would sleep with anyone to get the part. Overbearing mother who lives vicariously through her daughter. Self harm, lesbianism, drugs, madness. It all just seemed so tired. Which is pretty fatal for a film about a subject matter that there aren’t many films about. Tired before its own time. And talk about flogging a concept or motif. Yes, I understand the white/black swan dichotomy – just shut up about it already! Yes yes, I understand the importance of the mirror to the whole gist of the film – does there have to be one in every single blooming scene? It caused me to scoff a little too often. Lastly, and I think most importantly but also where I’m going to have to disagree with most critics, is a lead character/performance that I just didn’t care about at all. She was descending into madness and I had to stifle a yawn. What really makes a film tick is when the audience relates to, cares about or at least has hope for the lead character. And this can be tenuous, for sure. In There Will Be Blood, the lead is hugely unlikeable and unrelatable. But what makes that film truly great is that the audience clings to the hope that he can redeem himself. He doesn’t, but this is largely irrelevant – we are already hooked. In Black Swan, I just felt nothing. At the beginning, she was mostly annoying. And by the end, ridiculously melodramatic. And it’s not just the lead I didn’t like. Hershey and Ryder in particular were extremely one-dimensional and, at times, ridiculous. Cassel had a bit more to work with, but in the end became a repetitive and boring plot device.

I guess I’m a little surprised at the praise heaped upon this film. Which perhaps makes me like it even less than it deserves. But I stand by my evaluation – although Black Swan might present itself rather well, there is no heart and soul in this clichéd film. It tries too hard and falls at most every hurdle.

------------------------------

Thomas: That was me seducing you. It needs to be the other way around.