SWAN DIVE: a review of "Black Swan"

"BLACK SWAN"
Story by Andres Heinz
Screenplay Written by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, and John McLaughlin
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
**** (four stars)

As far as I am concerned, just give Natalie Portman the Oscar for Best Actress right now. Skip the contest and preamble and just give it to her. She deserves it and she more than earned it. Case closed. But, more on Ms. Portman a bit later…

During the month of December, magazines and television programs all create their year-end wrap-ups, many of which culminate with a series of lists that contain selections for the best and worst of a particular genre. I will tell you that for movies, and for Savage Cinema in particular, I will not compile a final list until around late January/mid February, the period just before the late February 2011 Academy Awards telecast. This is simply because many films have not received a wide release as of yet and/or I just have not had the time and opportunity to see everything that I wish to see.

For most of 2010, Writer/Director Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” became and remained my favorite film of the year. I have seen many films that I have loved or admired so very much throughout the latter half of 2010 but I just had not found anything that I felt had reached even beyond the immense heights set by that awesome head spinning experience. But then, in the afternoon on the very last day of the year, I walked into a screening of “Black Swan,” Director Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller set within the world of Ballet Theater. Two hours later, I walked out of that film knowing that the bar set by “Inception” had indeed been dramatically raised. I realize that it is going to be a bit of a premature statement as there are more films I wish to see. But, I am going to go out on a limb and announce that “Black Swan” is, far and away, my favorite film of 2010.

Natalie Portman gives a fearless, dynamic, swan dive of a performance as Nina Sayers, an aging ballet dancer, desperately trying to attain the dual leading role of “The Swan Queen/The Black Swan” in her company’s production of “Swan Lake.” Nina’s overly intensive and obsessive quest for perfection leads her down increasingly and equally intensive confrontations with all of the primary figures in her life. She struggles physically and professionally with pleasing her powerfully demanding artistic Director/Choreographer Thomas Leroy (a brilliant Vincent Cassell). She weathers the jealous wrath of her dancing peers, most notably Beth McIntyre (Winona Ryder), the once glorious now “elder” dancer being kicked aside for Nina in the “Swan Lake” production. Additionally, Nina faces extreme competition and fear of replacement from Lily (an excellent Mila Kunis), a new dancer, whose outward confidence and sexual energy assures her a more perfect fit for the role of the “Black Swan.” At home, life is no calmer as Nina lives with her suffocating Mother, Erica (a downright creepy Barbara Hershey), a former dancer who is obviously living her own failed dreams through Nina. And yet, Nina’s greatest foes are the demons that exist within herself and surround her constantly, defying her to “let go” and give herself into her darker tendencies in order to fully embody the role of “The Black Swan.”

Like the very best films I saw in 2010, “Black Swan” is a one-of-a-kind experience that announces itself in the movie theater so confidently as being unlike anything else currently showing on any other screen. For those of you who were expecting either a quaint, straightforward filmed version of “Swan Lake” or conversely, a Lifetime/”Fatal Attraction” styled thriller, “Black Swan” is defiantly not either of those types of movies. In addition to having a front row seat to the self-destruction of a woman’s fragile mind, not since Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” (2008), have I seen a film that established its own high level of intensity so immediately, subsequently tightening the experience within an inch of its life and carrying the audience along with it. It is a character study of a young woman’s relentlessly unforgiving nature against herself. It is an exploration of the grueling athleticism and competition of dance while also functioning as a horror film. And as the tension skyrockets, Nina's descent becomes that much greater making the experience unrelenting.

Extreme congratulations must be given to the film’s entire cast and crew for the grand success of this motion picture as Aronofsky is in full command of his filmmaking powers, creating what may be his best film to date. MVP status must first be awarded to Cinematographer Matthew Libatique, whose hand-held camera work places you so dangerously close to Nina Sayers’ head that the audience serves as her eyes, making us see the world the exact way she sees the world, suddenly arriving hallucinations and all. Composer Cliff Mansell’s film score, which utilizes many elements and themes from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” is possibly the most sinister and disturbing usage of classical music in a film since Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” (1972). Aronofsky’s Sound Department, Editing team and Visual Effects team also deserve top awards for their contributions to “Black Swan” as they make the film a full auditory/visual experience with the eerie sounds of fluttering wings, disembodied noises of laughter and crying traveling through visual moments on wondering if you indeed saw what you thought you saw. All of these combined efforts make the experience of “Black Swan” akin to having a first class ticket to the inside of an unhinged and unraveling brain.

Most compellingly, Aronofsky has fashioned a fever dream feast of thematic, conceptual, physical and psychological juxtapositions that is nothing short of magnificent and deeply labyrinthine. Combined with the dueling color schemes of black and white and the constant presence of mirrors and mirror imagery, the story of “Black Swan” itself is a mirror image of the story of “Swan Lake” with the actors functioning as mirror images of their film characters, and their film characters function as mirror images of their “Swan Lake” personas. As for Nina Sayers, the mirror imagery grows deeper as all of the characters, in her life and in the story of “Swan Lake,” are also reflections of her fracturing psyche. It is not as confusing at I may have may it sound as the experience of “Black Swan” is jarringly yet brilliantly seamless.

Certainly when it comes to all forms of artistic expression, to each their own. I will greatly concede that the experience of “Black Swan” is not meant for everyone. And it shouldn’t be. That said, I do have to say that as I heard the harshly negative comments by two older women being presented LOUDLY behind me once the film concluded, I do have to admit that I desired strongly to jump into the conversation and verbally clean their collective clocks. This feeling became especially apparent when they actually criticized the performance of Natalie Portman, proclaiming that while she is pretty, all she did over the course of two hours was look pained and that she really did absolutely nothing at all. Ladies, you’re dead wrong.

Natalie Portman has been an actress I have admired for many, many years yet I have often felt that she tends to hold back within her performances, like there is this untapped energy she is either unwilling or unable to access. In Luc Besson’s “The Professional” (1994), Mike Nichols’ “Closer” (2004) and even Wes Anderson’s “Hotel Chevalier” his prelude to “The Darjeeling Limited” (2007), I saw flashes of that hungry energy underneath the precious china doll fragility. For “Black Swan,” in order to feel the complete fury of Nina Sayers’ psychological descent, Natalie Portman has to be able to harness that particular energy and take the audience to Hell.

She does.

Yes, Natalie Portman does carry a pained expression throughout “Black Swan” and she does carry the gait of a dying flower. But don’t let that quivering visage fool you. Natalie Portman is a powerhouse and her performance is a complete work of physical and psychological anguish. Yes, like Nina, we can see the toll the physical demands of this role have taken upon Portman’s already diminutive frame. But, I would mainly like to focus upon the insular aspects of her work.

As I have already stated, “Black Swan” is a film of juxtapositions and the character of Nina Sayers’s mental breakdown occurs through her own self-punishment with attempting to tap into her darker energy to fully convince theater audiences that she is both the Swan Queen and the Black Swan. Similarly, Natalie Portman herself has to convince the audience in the movie theater that she is able tap into that similar energy. Portman is playing a dual role while Nina plays a dual role as well and both of whom are involved with the painful act and art of becoming.

For Portman, her physical nature informs and enhances the psychological as the psychological informs and enhances the physical. This particular act creates a conceptual wheel that is in constant revolution, revolving faster and faster until the breaking point. Yet, here is where Natalie Portman and Nina Sayers divide as Portman is in complete control while giving the performance of a woman spiraling entirely out of control.

The casting of Mila Kunis as Lily, Nina’s rival, is deeply inspired as Kunis instantly conveys to the movie theater audience an ease with herself, a supreme inner confidence, as well as a provocative carnal energy that makes you snap your head towards her the moment she arrives on screen. Like the energy between Lily and Nina and their combined effect over their director and ballet troupe, Kunis effortlessly keeps your attention and nearly steals every scene she shares with Portman. But just when she is about to claim the scene for herself, Portman wrestles it back, re-asserting that she is indeed the star of this movie. The acting dance Portman and Kunis share throughout “Black Swan” is electrifying and every single moment between them, combined with all else that I have mentioned, has created the performance of Natalie Portman’s life. Yes, she is indeed that spectacular and if people cannot see that, I just don’t know what movie they were watching.

Throughout this review, I have referred to “Black Swan" as an experience. For me, when I think of my favorite films of the year, I ponder which films made me forget that I was even watching a movie. I think of the ones that could even make me forget that I was in a movie theater and I just became a part of what was in front of my eyes, no matter the genre. Those films transcend just being films and they ultimately receive the highest of praise from me.

“Black Swan” achieved that feat stronger than any other film I saw in 2010. It transcended its form and became something so much more. “Black Swan” will rattle your cages and alter your senses. “Black Swan” is an opera for your nightmares.

Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” featuring the uncaged, blistering work of Natalie Portman, is cinema to behold.