Black swan
Review by the Jamster

Back Swan is a Phychological rollercoaster of a film set around ballet in New York Directed by Darren Aronofsky famous for Requiem for a Dream and the not so well know film the fountain.
It’s worth mentioning before I went into the cinema to watch this film my girlfriend and I were obstructed by a older women protesting publically how disgusted about the film. So of course this gave me the entertaining challenge I like to call ‘Walk out moment,’ where I try decide at which point during the film the disgusted women walked out of the cinema, but more on that lady.
The story of Black Swan is fairly basic and if you’re familiar with Aronofskys work you will probably know from the start how this story is going to progress and even finish. Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers a young ballet dancer going for the lead role in Swan Lake, she is young and innocent with loads of talent, trains very hard and im betting she hasn’t even smoked she really comes across as a sweet innocent girl.
Nina still lives with her mother who treats like she is still 5 years old by tucking her in bed, making her cakes and giving constant encouragement. Her mother played by Barbara Hershey is front the offset the best actor in this film. She is so supportive of her daughter it actually has a massive effect on Natalie Portmans character shes basically a child trying to compete in an adult world. She’s a five year old girl in a adults body.
Adding to the stress from her mother, Nina is trying to get the lead role in the upcoming ballet presentation Swan Lake. The director however, is looking for a girl to play both the white swan role and the black swan role both essentially different and challenging roles. The director like most evil directors adds extra pressure to Nina by giving her advice and unique homework assignments to get into the roles.
Adding to this Nina has the pressure from her competition Lily played by Mila Kunis. Who unlike Nina plays the bad girl renegade dancer (noticing the link to the Black Swan yet).

So with all these stresses in Ninas life it’s no wonder she is a little messed up and fighting a difficult internal battle.


From this first paragraph you may be thinking hey this film doesn’t sound half bad. Well thats just it, it’s a interesting idea just turned into a somewhat wasted opportunity. The film just comes across as mostly dull and boring while. The main focus of the film of Ninas internal torment seems somewhat only mildly explored until the last twenty minutes of the film. The film just comes across as so boring.
And then we come to the part most people have heard about in the film, the L word, yes the lesbian scene. It really isn’t a big part of the film so if your gonna see this film to see Naltalie Portman and Mila Kunis make out you may as well wait till you can see it on you tube, it really plays that small a role.

What I was surprised about was for a film about ballet the soundtrack was not very inspiring. It has the typical melodies and piano based around Swan Lake, however, it really did not leave much of an impression. For a film focused around ballet the soundtrack could have been a lot more engaging.
Overall, Black Swan is watchable but that’s about it. No doubt it will do well in award season but it’s a shame the director did not really take it to the next level. After all Aronofsky has proven in his previous films he can go the extra mile. Everything just seems to have been played very safe here.
Rating: Rent it.
You may be asking when did that women walk out, well my prediction was it must have been the multiple references to masturbation in the film. Its unlikely she got far enough to even see the lesbian scene.