A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City Ballet, BLACK SWAN stars Natalie Portman as Nina, a featured dancer who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company (Mila Kunis). The film takes a thrilling and at times terrifying journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect.
This is the best movie that I have seen in a long time. It is a suspenseful shocker, although it is so, on a very subtle scale and pace. A beautiful cloak surrounds a horrifying decent into paranoia, that to some will be troubling but, to others, intense open-mouthed awe. Natalie Portman is beautiful and delightful to watch as she pulls you into her perspective, which always strikes you as real, but then something happens that doesn't add up and you are left wondering, is she going crazy?
This is a must see, especially for those of us who thirst for some originality from a movie.
I don't really know what to say about this movie. Between the schizophrenic moments throughout most of the movie and the erotic scenes that just seem to pop out of no where, it kind of tripped me out. It was an alright movie. Definitely not one to watch with the kids or your parents (awkward)! By far the best scene was the Natalie Portman Mila Kunis bedroom scene.
4.5/5
I really enjoyed watching this movie and I am not into ballet very much at all. The story is much more focused on the character whose life revolves around dancing so you obviously see some ballet, which was still pretty entertaining. Natalie Portman did an amazing job with her character and showed a lot of emotion. A far cry from her Star Wars actin, this was a great movie to watch and enjoy.
IM GOING TO BE HONEST. THIS MOVIE WASNT SO TERRIBLE BEAUSE IT DOES HAVE MEANING! IF U DONT GET THE MEANING ...U DONT GET THE MOVIE...PLAIN AND SIMPLE! .... THE ONLY REASON WHY SOMEONE MIGHT NOT LIKIE IT ITS BECAUSE THROUGHOUT THE MOVIE SHE HAS TO BE DANCING...WELL DUH!!! WHAT DO U EXPECT IS HAS A BALLERINA AS DA COVER AND ITS CALLED BLACK SWAN!!!!!!! JUST ENJOY DA ROLLERCOASTER OF PSYCOTIC ACTIONSS IN DIS MOVIE.
I actually really enjoyed the movie because it is verry profound and there are some interpretations:
1st is the pursuit of perfection, which drives Nina in the end crazy and when she reaches it she dies. It is true that she is the perfect white swan, but she loses that in the end. She reaches for the total perfection of many things. So it basically critizises our society or economic, political system in which errors are not any more natural and you need to be perfect in many ways. So our system is not perfect at all as there are no perfect people ...
2nd is that it simply plays the ballet swan lake inside Nina, she herself is Odette who is not caught in a swan but in ballet and does not even try to break out with love but wants to run herself deeper into it ... She manages to seduce, meaning to love her teacher by adapting the techniques of her friend, the personification of Odile. The question here is, who is the Odile, the teacher or her friend ... This level of interpretation also reffers to the first one, as Nina doesn t realize that she s trapped and is focused by the idea of becoming perfect... she s happy with her swan life.
3rd is an explanation why there are so many dreams. The original swan lake ballet hasn't been sucessful at first, because some major parts of it were removed and the tricky parts just replaced. So a lot of changing has been done and didn t make the ballet better ... so what the director did is just mix them up to have a ultimate modern version of it, that s why the ending could also be just a dream. He played swan lake not as what Tchaikovski originally wanted it to be but rather what it became.
This explanation unfortunately doesn't apply to all of the dreams, because some are just there to show the development of Nina or the changing of her character.
In total what the film wants to show us is that we can try to reach for perfection in one term (nina being the perfect white swan) but shall never try to combine many ones. So try to be yourself and don't get obsessed by to many opposing things :-)
4,5/5
Finally Natalie Portman shows us that she's not just have a pretty face but also had a great talent... first, i thought this movie could ve a boring movie.. well it's not it's a great ballet-movie ever.. with a brilliant shot and brilliant cinematography, you got yourself a very entertaining movie.. Mila "Meg" Kunis, is proved everyone that she's not just an ordinary actor... i think Mila could be an Oscar potential in the future if she's keep the good performance in every her movie...
I see about 5 movies a year, i usually know what im getting ahead of time (action, comedy, chick-flic) I didnt know what to expect when i walked into this but i was happy when i left (which happens about 1 a year). No i dont think Natalie Portman did all her own dancing, yes the cinematography seemed to be lacking in some spots and yes it was a little confusing in some spots. But open your mind, let it go (a theme of the movie). Anyone that could dance Swan Lake wouldnt have time to be an actor and Natalie did an awesome job, i would say her best movie. The cinematography was okay but you really needed 2 directors, 2 visions because it was really 2 movies(if not more) in one and i think the dancing part could have been filmed by a dancing-movie-director. If you're a dancer, over-look the fine points, if you like art, if you like suspence, if you like to think and be surprised...you'll love it. Have a coffee afterwards because you will feel the ned to talk about this one.