Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, a ballerina with a company which is starting its new season by doing a version of Swan Lake, but when a rival dancer from San Francisco played by Mila Kunis comes to dance with her company, Nina starts to lose her mind.
You know, I don't know in all honesty if there will be a better movie released this year, almost everything about it is unbelievable and at times heart stopping, Portman, Kunis, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey are all really good but the star attraction here is Portman, who puts everything she has and more into this, at times driving herself to the brink of total insanity through sheer determination to prove herself not only in this movie but as an adult actress to the world, having for a number of years failed to impress audiences since her film debut in Luc Besson's The Professional in 1994 when she was just 13.
In terms of the film itself, director Darron Aronofsky really lets his camera do the talking and finally shows off how to properly film dancing scenes letting the actors and the editing flow in a natural and uninterrupted way that lets us soak in the dancing in the scenes, I was also reminded of two other movies as it went on: David Cronenberg's The Fly and Rocky II.
I guess I should explain the latter reference in more detail, you see both Black Swan and Rocky II end in a big climax that involves our hero going to the brink before earning the adulation of the crowd and also in both instances, the final scenes are heartstoppingly tense in a way that makes you soar.
All in all, go check it out, 4 and a half out of 5.
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