Black Swan

I found this movie to be utterly captivating.  The story of a ballerina slowly unraveling after being chosen to play the swan queen in a major production of Swan Lake, Black Swan manages to be creepy and elegant, tragic and inspiring all at once.  Natalie Portman does an exceptional job in every aspect of her performance, from capturing the timid, fragility of a woman cracking under self applied pressure, to displaying skill worthy of any true ballerina.  Much to do has been given to the fact that Portman trained 8 hours a day for a year to perfect her ballet technique, but not enough attention has been payed to the fact that she exhibits all evidence of true natural talent as well.  As a dancer myself, I cannot understate the importance of having believable dancing in a film like this.  Any actress given the time and resources, could train like Portman did - but hardly anyone would achieve such results.  She worked for every ounce of it, but Portman is truly an exquisite dancer, which gave the movie such depth and resonance. There were no cut away shots to a dancing body double and then back to a close up of her head - the camera has the freedom to swing in and out capturing every movement and emotion because of her efforts and skill.  The opening shots are of a ballerina's feet, dancing en pointe, and the technique is no wonderful, their arch so perfect, that years of history make you immediately assume it is a stunt double, so when the dancer lowers herself to the floor (without a cut in the shot) and you finally see that it has been Portman the whole time it comes as a revelation.  probably not to other people, but to me at least.*

And the rest of the movie is just as intense.  Delusions, paranoia, the movie crackles with suspense and trepidation as we watch the main character, Nina, buckle under the strain of perfection.  She no longer knows what is real, and neither does the audience.  The final performance is edited in such a way as to be so vibrant and thrilling and emotional; truly the culmination of everything Nina has worked and suffered for.

Many people I have heard have been confused by the movie, or at a loss what to think about the ending.  I will leave all interpretation up to each individual viewer, but I will say, as someone who has been on stage, has been through that kind of intense pursuit of the perfect physical performance, I understood it perfectly.  As a dancer, the best performance you will ever give is one you won't remember.  When you are completely in sync, your body moves by memory and instinct alone; you do not have to think, you do not have to feel, you simply are.  At that moment, there is no separation between yourself and the music and the movement and thought becomes impossible and irrelevant.  There are no consequences; there is only dance.

Go see Black Swan.  You may not love it like I did, but you won't regret it.

Black Swan 1hr 48min R

* update: obviously, much ado has been made about the fact that is was not in fact Portman dancing, but a body double.  So this whole paragraph is basically wrong now.  I'm not rewriting it because it is true to what I thought/believed at the time.