Black Swan

The first scene immediately grabbed my attention. I don’t think one has to be verse in ballet to know the opening sequence is intense. And that air of suspense never lets up. Natalie Portman plays Nina, whose whole being and existence is ballet and becoming perfection. She has her eyes on being the lead in the company’s next performance. I’ve always enjoyed the music to Swan Lake but never knew that there was such a bleak ending. A Princess is turned into a white swan by a curse and only true love can break it. Cue the Prince! The story takes a turn when the Black Swan, who looks just like the White, fools the Prince. With no man and the dismal future of being a swan the White Swan kills herself. (Sorry to all the fans of the Swan Princess because I might have just killed childhood memories).

Who owns this movie is Natalie Portman. When a movie doesn’t have strong actors (or confusing plot) lines are usually relied upon to express emotions/thoughts because well….they can’t act. We’ve all seen it! But with Nina (Portman) no one needed to tell me what she thought or felt, everything was written on her face. Within minutes her actions and expressions showed she was vulnerable, obsessed, fragile, and oppressed. Black Swan is centered on the mental breakdown of a ballerina and if Portman’s performance didn’t fly this could have turned out to be a silly wreck. I mean horror and Swan Lake usually don’t go hand-in-hand, but they ended up being a good mash-up. Speaking of horror there is a ton of suspense and scary graphic images (couple that are still hard to shake). I am not a fan of horror, especially the gory, because the plots are usually ridiculous dumb and the acting is even scarier. If that’s the same ‘woes’ you are feeling then come on over to sophisticated horror (whoa….that has got to be an oxymoron).

With that said along with some pretty horrific images there is a lot of sexual content. To the point where people tend to react in nervous giggles because they don’t know what else to do (the row behind me). There are a couple of scenes that are very explicit and leave little to the imagination. The funniest thing to me is that Nina has some serious ‘hot-for-teacher’ going on with the company’s director Thomas, (and he is all about seducing her) but he isn’t in EITHER of the explicit scenes. So I would advise not making this a first date movie or take the parents (they can go see it on their own). I have to state that the sexual content isn’t just there to be there but has a purpose. All of it is woven in to the ‘transformation’ of Nina becoming the Black Swan.

Conclusion: Amazing, plan on seeing it again before out of the theaters, and I’m rooting for Portman to get an Oscar.

P.S. Happy New Year!! I Hope 2011 is an Fabulous Year for Everyone :D