Brutal Ballet - Black Swan

Okay, as promised, finally, a review of Black Swan. I didn’t know much about this film before seeing it, only that Portman had been awarded several Best Actress awards, and that the critics either hailed it as a masterpiece, or were slightly less pleasant. Because of the critical reaction, I knew I had to see this film. According to the talk it was love or hate. You had to pick a side. No middle ground. But despite the talk, here I am in no man’s land.

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey

Rating: EE

The Plot:

Swan Lake. I can’t say that with any certainty, I’ve never seen, read or been told the story of Swan Lake before but it’s outlined pretty well in Black swan.

I think Black Swan is a classic case of don’t listen to the hype. The very reason I’ve avoided DarrenAron’s previous film ‘The Wrestler’ was because I knew Mickey Rourke could never live up to my expectations thanks  to all the Oscar’s hype about his amazing comeback.

Hype leads to the strange scenario where I’m looking to be drawn into the film, almost trying to force it rather than be naturally absorbed by the events on screen. That’s what happened with Black Swan, I tried to force myself to enjoy it and believe it was a great movie and all I ended up seeing were the problems. My own fault really, I should have gone to see it earlier.

My issues with Black Swan are all pretty moot: I don’t like the camera work, but I understand why it’s like that. Portman seems to have won an Oscar for looking sad, but she does the ‘I feel sad’ look very well. Parts of the story don’t make sense, but that’s where the paranoia comes from.

These issues make the film what it is. And if you want to make a film about someone getting ever more paranoid, that’s how you do it. There is nothing I would change or want to see done differently.

So Black Swan gets a low rating. Maybe undeservedly, but I watched it and just couldn’t connect in the way I was promised. If you haven’t already seen it I’d suggest you leave it a few months, let anything you may have heard about it fade away and watch it on its own merit. If you ‘follow’ my blog then you will still have this review to come back to afterwards.

Thanks for reading. I realise this review has been a little different from the others, a little less in depth, so please let me know if you liked it, preferred the previous style or want to see a bit of both in the future. You can do so by leaving a comment below. And if you have any questions about the camerawork, performances, editing, etc…  you can also comment below and as always I’ll be happy to let you know what I think.