Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Black Swan Review

Black Swan (2010)



Black Swan (2010)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, and Winona Ryder

Possibly the best psychological thriller of 2010, Black Swan delivers along every edge of reality that it reaches. Black Swan is undoubtedly the best work that Natalie Portman has delivered thus far, and I’m a huge fan of her role in the movie adaption of V for Vendetta. Backed by a stellar cast, Portman finds a way to progressively distort your view of reality down to last minutes of the film.

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a professional ballet dancer that wins the lead in the famous “Swan Lake”. Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) is absolutely convinced that Nina can perform the role of the White Swan, but feels that her role as the Black Swan won’t deliver. While pushing her emotional and mental limits, Nina begins to lose her mind in the hopes of perfecting her performance. Reality becomes hallucination, and hallucination become reality as Nina fails to separate the two in her quest to master the role of the Black Swan. Inevitably, like the White Swan’s fate in the final act, Nina manages to kill herself as well in her obsession to finish with perfection.

Performances are strong from Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Max Payne) who plays a rival dancer Lily, who befriends Natalie Portman’s character and delivers an intense sexual scene in one of the film’s major highlights. Also a strong performance from Winona Ryder, who plays famous dancer Beth Macintyre that is replaced by Natalie Portman’s character and falls to a destructive demise. All in all the movie exceeded my expectations, and it left me dumbfounded when I left the theater. If you have the chance, don’t miss the opportunity to see Natalie Portman at her best.

Rating: 9 out 10

Purchase V for Vendetta with Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving

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