BLACK SWAN movie review

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Black Swan (2010) — **

If Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan succeeds at anything, which would be asking a lot from this weak melodrama masquerading as an exploitation film masquerading as high art, it is this: the film makes Aronofsky’s previous effort, The Wrestler, seem even better. I overlooked the intensity of Aronofsky’s low-key pro-wrestling drama because it lacked the edge of his earlier work. Now, after seeing the overcooked “edge” of the Black Swan, I miss the subtlety of one Randy “The Ram.”

Black Swan falls somewhere between laughable and unwatchable. It’s as ridiculously self-aware of its intentions as Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds without the effortless talent to back up its ego. This film merely puts a tutu on Aronofsky’s greatest hits without exploring anything new… at all.

In Black Swan, Natalie Portman play Nina Sayers, a ballerina selected to star in a new production of Swan Lake, replacing the company’s former star. Instead of having two different ballerinas fill the black swan and white swan roles, artistic director Thomas Leroy’s (Vincent Cassel) daring new take on the production requires one actress, Nina, to fill both roles.

During auditions Leroy tells Nina that if he were just casting the white swan she would have the role already. The disciplined, often meek Nina, however, isn’t quite prepared for the sensual, uninhibited black swan.

This is where things get sticky.

Nina becomes unbalanced preparing for the role of the black swan. Her strict mother (Barbara Hershey), a former ballerina who gave up on her career to raise Nina, tries to control her daughter’s behavior, presumably to prevent Nina from reliving her mistakes. On the flip side, Leroy encourages Nina to “go home and touch yourself” (which she does, viciously), while the company’s natural black swan, Lily (Mila Kunis), emerges as the ultimate frienemy, a girl who befriends and, as Nina perceives it, plots against.

So Nina is a girl in need of a sexual awakening but can’t connect that up with her own desire to deliver a perfect performance? Right.

I use the word “perfect” because it’s used over and over again to the point of absurdity. In any other film, that’s not worth pointing out. But in an Aronofsky film, all of which are about humans seeking transcendence, the lazy, literal use turns this portrait of an artist into nothing more than the diary of a mad black swan.

You can lay much of the blame on writers who put together a together a screenplay that’s more melodrama than psychodrama. Yet Aronofsky embraces the more grotesque, surreal qualities, whether it’s peeling a cuticle back to knuckle or having Nina fight herself wearing the black and white swan outfits. There are so many moments of weak Lynch and weak Cronenberg that they translate into even weaker Aronofsky.

Is Portman good? Probably, but she’s caked in the make-up of a role that’s too showy for its own good. As a companion for Rourke’s wrestler, the role generally works, but as I said at the onset, it like the rest of the film works more for The Wrestler. Here’s hoping that Aronofsky’s next film, the big-budget sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, cleanses his palate so that he can find the direction he so desperately needs after Black Swan.

Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, and Barbara Hershey, directed by Darren Aronofsky, is now playing.