Black Swan is a psycho sexual thriller starring Natalie Portman as Nina a dancer in the New York Ballet Company.
The company is preparing for a production of Swan Lake and the Director needs a new Principal dancer as the star Beth is retiring. The lead must be able to portray both the innocent white swan and the evil black swan. Nina is selected to compete for the part along with newcomer in the ballet company Lily. Nina goes to see the director to ask him for the role but he tells he although she will make an excellent white swan her lack of passion will not make her suitable for the black swan role. He forces a kiss on her and she bites him which makes him see some potential for being dark so he gives her the role. Lily is cast as her understudy.
During rehearsals Nina is excellent as the white swan but a poor black swan the director tell her she has to stop being so rigid and lose herself in the black swan role.
Nina becomes paranoid that Lily wants to take the lead role from her and starts to hallucinate and become delusional.
One night Lily shows up by Nina’s door and invites her to go out for drinks. At first Nina refuses but after a fight with her controlling mother she goes out with Lily. Lily offers Nina drugs which lower her inhibitions and she becomes sexually aroused. When they return to the apartment they lock themselves in Nina’s room and have passionate sex.
Nina wakes up late for her rehearsal and when she arrives she sees Lily playing the Swan Queen. She confronts Lily and asked why she didn’t wake her up. Lily says she spent the night with a guy and not at Nina’s, it is revealed that Nina was hallucinating.
The night before the opening night Nina rehearses late and continues to hallucinate, at home she imagines the paintings on the wall mocking her and she sees little black growths on her back, when she pulls them out it appears to be feathers. Her eyes turn blood red and her legs contort like those of a swan, she falls and knocks herself out on her bedpost.
She awakes the night of her performance locked in her bedroom by her mother who said she called the dance company and told them she is unwell and will not be able to perform. She physically fights with her mother and heads to the show where the Director has asked Lily to take over the role; Nina disregards this and tells Thomas she is able to perform.
During the first act Nina is distracted and the Prince drops her, she returns to the dressing room and finds Lily dressed in the Black Swan costume. A fight ensues where Lily changes form from herself to Nina, Nina and her double battle where Nina pushes her against a mirror which shatters, she then takes up a piece of glass and stabs her, the body then changes back to Lily and Nina hides the body.
She dances the black swan passionately imagining black feathers growing all over her body and her arms becoming wings. She receives a standing ovation from the audience.
Back in her dressing room she is preparing for the final act when someone knocks on the door, it is Lily who comes to congratulate her on her performance. She realizes the fight was another hallucination and sees a wound on her body and realized that she stabbed herself. She stills performs the final act where she dances passionately as the dying white swan. In the last scene when she throws herself of a cliff the theatre erupts in applause and the cast comes to congratulate her on her performance. Lily sees Nina wound, Nina lies wounded saying “I was perfect”.
This was one of the most overhyped movies; I think the billing was wrong- a Psycho Sexual thriller, there was nothing either thrilling or sexual about the film except for the imagined lesbian scene.
Although Natalie Portman looked the part of a Ballerina maybe through a strict diet the story line did not call for her to do much as an actress. She just had to play a sad girl with a controlling mother and look fearful. Even her innocence and naiveté was annoying -you can’t be that perfect.
I won’t recommend paying the money to see but if you are the artsy type and wish to see a Ballet it’s probably worth a look just don’t expect much.
No comments:
Post a Comment