Black Swan - Dancing In The Dark

Striving to be better, oft we mar what's well.                                                    --Shakespeare (King Lear)

The push for perfection, the pull to perfection, the slow death in perfection; This is the cinematic dance of Black Swan. Ballet can be cruel and punishing. It's an exacting discipline that demands slavish devotion, acts of contortion, and like the career of a professional athlete, it has a short expiration date. Ballet ain't for sissys. 
Working from a twisted screenplay by the trio of Mark Heyman, Andre Heinz and John McLaughlin, director Darren Aronofsky's summation in the court of ballet seems to be transcendence through psychological self-punishment and physical torture.

Natalie Portman is Nina Sayers, a respected dancer with a ballet company at New York's Lincoln Center. As prima ballerina Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder) fades into (forced) retirement, Nina’s star ascends. She’s a front contender for the dual roles of Odette the Swan Queen and her doppleganger Odile - the Black Swan - in the troupe’s reinterpretation of Swan Lake. Artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) is confident in Nina's capabilities as the Swan Queen, but uncertain she can personify the enigmatic, carnal Black Swan Odile. In Leroy’s interpretation Odile is an all out She-Devil. Nina’s repression and pursuit of perfection are the very things that divide her from the role(s) of a lifetime.
       
When new company dancer Lily (Milla Kunis) of unrepressed San Francisco arrives on scene, Nina finds herself drawn to and repelled by her in equal parts. Lily represents the free spirited young woman that Nina is not; The one she must unearth to personify the Black Swan. If Nina can let go and dance with her dark side the Black Swan will come alive. However, Nina’s been dancing in the dark for some time now. If Hell is other people, in Nina’s case it is also ones self. Nina lives in a hell of her own making... with a little help from her friends.  

As tightly wound as Portman's Nina is, there's no alternative but to unravel. That unraveling is the engine that drives Black Swan. And thank Aronofsky for that. It's a Grindhouse/Grand Guignol mash up. It's All About Ev(il) It's Mr. Tchaikovsky's Wild Ride as re-imagined by Jean Paul Sartre.

Natalie Portman is haunting as the self-mutilating, perfection driven wraithlike Nina Sayers, shrinking in the shadow of her suffocating mother Erica (Barbara Hershey), a has been or never was of the ballet world. Nina is a fragile soul. She is raw nerves and sexual longing. But, eventually it pours out, hot hallucinatory and liberating. It’s the performance of Portman’s 17 year career.

Mila Kunis’ Lily is expressive, extroverted, provocative and perhaps dangerous. Kunis finds the perfect balance. We are never certain of her motives. Angel or Demon? Both?

Barbara Hershey as Nina’s mother Erica is truly frightening. Her controlling and suffocating need to micro-manage her delicate daughter reminds me of Piper Laurie’s religious zealot in “Carrie”. Hershey's is a more nuanced performance; Jealousy and malice, just below the skin.
   

Before the film, I overhear a conversation behind me in the box office queue. An older couple that couldn't get tickets to the sold out "The Kings Speech" have decided to take a chance on Black Swan. The man says to his lady friend "Rex Reed hated it. Is it a French director?" The woman struggles to remember the director's name. "No, he's not French," she says. She’s searching her memory banks and I'm going crazy biting my tongue. I turn back to them "His name is Darren Aronofsky, he's a Jewish American". Without a beat, the woman responds "Oy, who isn't". I usually don't read reviews before I write one, however, after the film I decide to read Mr. Reed’s review. Indeed a pan. "Overrated" "Overwrought" "Overhyped". The word that compels me is overwrought.
Black Swan is overwrought. Swooningly, thrillingly so. 
It is melodramatic and daring. Visually exciting. The characters are extreme.
Go big or go home. And no one’s going home. Aronofsky is true to himself, his vision, his players. This is a singular vision that does not suffer from filmmaking by committee. I doubt Black Swan went back for re-editing after a test screening audience found it confusing or down beat. That a film can still make it to the screen unblemished by public opinion is a minor miracle. Black Swan is beautifully overwrought, my review of it is overwrought as well. But, sometimes isn’t too much just right?
Black Swan goes to the cinematic edge and over it. A death spiral swan dive; This can't end well. The cliff is behind us and ahead is an unknown gaping maw, but for now I am satisfied to plunge into the unknown.