My second review, in honor of Natalie Portman winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress about an hour ago, is going to be Black Swan.
This film instantly shot up to one of my top ten favorites. I almost don't feel worthy to be reviewing it, but I'll hopefully do it justice.
As a modern take on the story "Swan Lake," Black Swan focuses on Portman's character Nina. Nina is a shut-in of sorts, living in New York with her single mother. When she wins the lead role in the Swan Lake production, Nina expertly portrays the White Swan. However, she becomes very pressured when she fails to successfully portray the much darker role of the Black Swan. Her instructor Thomas, played by Vincent Cassel, gives her several pointers on how to "loosen up" in order to more easily fit into the role. An example of these pointers he gives her is to "go home and touch yourself." Very dedicated to her craft, Nina works hard and takes these pointers from Thomas. However, she also finds herself being corrupted by her peer Lily, played by Mila Kunis. Lily portrays the darker side that Nina is striving to become in order to be the Black Swan. In a desperate attempt to fit into this character, she gives into Lily's corruption. Nina begins to hallucinate about things and she eventually can't tell what's real anymore.
Without spoiling anything, I'll move onto my review. Portman gives a mind-blowing performance as Nina. Obviously she's been getting a large amount of praise from critics and fans alike, and as I previously mentioned, she just won the Golden Globe for Best Actress tonight. Aronofsky is a great director and he, obviously, did a great job with this film. I like his very dark tone that he traditionally creates in his films so well, and Black Swan is no exception for that tradition. Mila Kunis also did a great job as the party girl Lily. I hope she gets an Oscar nomination for her role. All in all, there is just so much going on in this film that it's hard to really talk about without spoiling anything. I've always personally felt like ballerina's are stereotyped for their lack of eating and their hard work that they put into their craft. This film definitely enforces those stereotypes, but it's such a great story about the character of Nina. We slowly see her spiral out of control and become a completely different person. I really love the hallucinations that she has throughout the film too. It becomes hard for her to tell what's real and what isn't. And as the audience, we really get sucked into the story as we are never aware what is real and what she's hallucinating. The hallucinations are a great symbolic touch which really portray how she is completely becoming the Black Swan. Figuratively and literally.
In conclusion, this film is undoubtedly one of the best of 2010. I highly suggest everyone see it if you're into dark drama like this. Portman's performance alone is worth the 9 bucks for the movie ticket, but you also get a great story with other great performances as well. However, DISCLAIMER!, there is a pretty intense sex scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman. So if that kind of stuff offends you, I would avoid it.
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