Nina is a young dancer with a prestigious ballet company who strives for perfection. She lives with her mother, a failed dancer, who shows signs of mentally instability early on. The company director, played by Vincent Cassell, seems to enjoy playing favourites with his dancers, his interest in them not entirely professional. When he begins casting for Swan Lake and his present favourite begins slipping from her throne, Nina seizes the chance to replace her and become the prima ballerina in the company. But can sweet, vulnerable Nina embrace her darker side in order to portray the black swan as well as she can the white swan? And if she does, will it destroy her along the way?
I saw one of director Darren Aronovsky's films a few years ago, Requiem for a Dream. Woah. Full on. I don't think I've seen a more affecting film. The closing scene, for those who haven't seen it, involves Jennifer Connolly (yes, dear little Sarah from Labyrinth) doing something entirely debasing (and I mean entirely...there are no words) for a little packet of heroin. And it was a weird film in a scary, psychologically twisted way. I didn't so much enjoy it as want to scrape it out of my brain. In a respecting way, but still. Scraping.
So you could say I was expecting something similar from Black Swan. I like being freaked out, though. Freaky-scary with ballet really appealed to me. So I had high expectations.
Black Swan was everything I'd hope it would be. Nina is literally being driven mad in her striving for perfection. It's impossible to tell whether Nina's paranoia is all in her head or whether her mother, the director, or Lily, the sultry dancer that could be replacing her, is contributing to her downward spiral. There's plenty of Requiem for a Dream thrillerness with lots of excellent scenes and beautiful dancing. I loved the way we didn't see Portman portraying the black swan right until the end. Those were my favourite scenes by far. They were so astounding, confronting. Portman radiated evil in those moments. It was pure brilliance.
Black Swan was released in Australia on January 20. I could have seen my favourite film of the year already and it's barely even begun.