Black Swan

Released: 2010
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Natalie Portman

A film that confused and entertained

It’s not often I watch a film and come away not knowing what I think about it. I’m usually very sure of my opinion whether or not it matches that of the mainstream. I’m the only person I know who thinks that the first Iron Man movie was completely dull and against the flow of all critical opinion I really didn’t like The Birds. On the other hand there are one-star movies like Escape to Victory that I absolutely love. I usually have complete confidence in my views and very rarely want to change anything I’ve said in reviews.

I have to admit though, I’m a bit lost with Black Swan. Did I enjoy it? I think so but to be honest I’m not entirely sure. I’ve been thinking about this review a lot in the couple of days between seeing the film and sitting down to write. Then it dawned on me, there are two ways to look at the film- firstly as an intelligent psychological thriller which explored the effects of mental illness on a fragile young woman and secondly as a piece of over the top melodramatic hokum. I found that once I knew where to categorise this film I also knew exactly how I felt about it.

Natalie Portman gives a deservedly Oscar-winning performance as Nina Sayers, a young ballerina desperate to move into the limelight. Her dreams look set to be realised as she is cast in the lead role in Swan Lake despite the director’s reservations that she will be unable to convince as the manipulative and passionate Black Swan. As Nina is consumed by her dual roles her mental health becomes increasingly fragile and she experiences hallucinations and paranoia.

As a searing exploration of mental illness, Black Swan fails almost completely. Poor Nina starts the film with a history of self-harming and clearly has an eating disorder. As more pressure is piled upon her she visible crumbles but no-one seems to notice or care. In fact she is surrounded by people whose own mental state is as precarious as her own from the aging prima ballerina (an impeccably cast Winona Ryder), a thoroughly unstable mother and a cruel director whose method of developing passion in his star dancer is little short of sexual assault.

On the other hand, as a B-movie melodrama Black Swan was great. Everything in this film screamed of being over-the-top nonsense. Barbara Hershey was fantastically wild-eyed as the stage school mother pushing her daughter to have the perfect career that she never did. Vincent Cassell was never anything less than pantomime-baddie as the wicked director. Natalie Portman was brilliant as Nina but some of the wider eyed moments caused giggles rather than fear. The only time I felt really uncomfortable was when Nina believed she was actually turning into a swan with webbed feet and was able to pluck feathers from her back. The rest of the time I snorted happily at the ridiculousness of it all.

The dancing was beautiful and the score – mostly Tchaikovsky naturally – is soaring. I didn’t watch this film and want to become a ballerina, but I did want to go and see a real company perform with grace, elegance and passion.

Once I decided what kind of film I thought Black Swan was I became much more comfortable with my opinion. I enjoyed it but I couldn’t take it seriously in the slightest.