Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a twisted tale of a desperate ballerinas life to make it to the top, playing ‘swan queen’ in the dance schools production of ‘Swan Lake.’ Natalie Portman who plays the main character, Nina Sayers captures just the right amount of desperation and sexual naivety needed for this vulnerable character. Nina Sayers a young New York dancer fighting for Swan Queen, gets the part, but however the problem lies in the fact that she is perfect for the role of the white swan, capturing grace and innocence but struggles to portray the black swans passion and ragged poise, which fellow dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis) captures effortlessly.
The story develops into Nina making herself believe that Lily is plotting to take away the main role from her. The twisted and sexual relationship between Nina and Lily is electrifying, and reflects Nina’s sexual vulnerability in the film. Nina starts to trick herself making her think that she is not good enough for the role and starts to portray paranoia, developing mental health tendencies. This isn’t helped my her pushy and over protective mother whom is trying to live her long lived dream of being a dancer through her daughter. Nina starts to hallucinate, involving a scene with the dance mirrors where see sees herself turn around in the mirror but in reality she hadn’t.
Black Swan is an amazing movie, best I have seen in a long time. With its complicated and yet fascinating story line, involving desperation, vulnerability and sexual naivety it has all the right elements for a once in a life time film. Portman is the perfect choice to portray Nina’s under lying twisted issues. A dark tale with a hint of innocence making it even more dark, with elements of manipulation and corruption it truly is a beautiful film. Aronofsky has created this film brilliantly capturing the desperation and reality of dance and ambitions, showing the dangers of going too far for what you want. Truly excellent.
Love Scarlet xx
