Ride a White Swan

I feel a bit like a man who has woken from a coma to find that the world has ended. I'm walking the streets to find only abandoned cars and the remnants of a once prosperous human race before looking up at a scarred billboard advertising Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. I must be the last person on earth to see this film... it certainly feels that way. 

The new production needs a new swan queen. A fresh face to present to the world. But which of you can embody both swans? The white and the black? 

Black Swan is the story of young ballerina Nina and the realisation of her aspiration to undertake the lead role in a production of Swan Lake. I do not possess any sort of knowledge of ballet but can acknowledge how far from my crude stereotype Natalie Portman's characterisation, of the relatively psychotic Nina, progresses. Nina has struggled her whole life for perfection and is now struggling to resist her will for perfection as the role of the Black Swan requires a looser, more seductive approach. Alongside this Nina is also battling her over-bearing mother, a failed ballerina with a penchant for rough nail-clipping. This relationship makes for some uncomfortable viewing but is successful in establishing viewer sympathy for the main character. The nail-clipping, symbolic of the clipping of the wings of a bird (or swan), ensures that it does not flee its nest. The wishes of her mother manifest. Black Swan's scenes of horror are the ones that are most affecting and the atmospheric, claustrophobic nature of filming, with primarily hand-held camera, takes the viewer into the cramped apartment Nina shares with artistic mother.

Black Swan, at its best, has a fairytale-like aura which encompasses and allures the viewer. The backstage competition between dancers is really no different to that seen in films like Showgirls but where the films falls in my opinion is in it's refusal to commit to either fairytale, thriller or black comedy. With a budget of $13million Black Swan has some truly affecting scenes. Portman and Kunis' performance of the actual ballet was extremely convincing and the time spent in training certainly successful. I have to confess to hugely enjoying Aronofsky's The Wrestler and I understand that Black Swan has been likened in the shared depiction of individual suffering for their 'art'. Both Portman and Kunis perform well and Winona Ryder, although only in a few scenes is also strong. The casting of Vincent Cassel is slightly questionable and his attempts at seduction not wholly satisfying. I don't know if you ever watch a film and imagine what changes you would have made in terms of casting or production. I do. Imagine Willem Defoe, in Wild at Heart style, whispering in the ear of young Nina. Imagine.

The overriding feeling I take from the film is one of slight disappointment. It is only slight disappointment but I would have liked the film to have been a more visceral depiction of the protagonists struggles. I fully appreciate the premise of the ballerina's absolute embodiment of the role she so longed to play and her actual transformation into the Black Swan is one of the films most memorable scenes. Of these though, there were not enough. Each time the narrative tension was allowed to build, primarily by the genuinely affecting scenes of Nina confronting and handling her supposed psychosis, it was broken by lines such as "Did you have some sort of lezzie wet dream about me? Was I good?" which seem to belong to the pages of another script. Considering the points of detraction, and there are a few, you will not see anything else like Black Swan this year. Of that I can almost guarantee. Did I enjoy the film? Definitely. Was it as good as I hoped. Nope.

Perfect? I'm not perfect. I'm nothing. 

Official Site - http://www.foxsearchlight.com/blackswan