Black Swan is both disturbing and masterful. It is an ode to the art of film making and a crazy trip into the mind of one ballerina who would be perfect. The innocent and meek Nina Sayers has performed with her ballet company for years, but has yet to be featured in a leading role. News hits that the aging prima ballerina, Beth would perform her last production at the request of the company and a new dancer would be selected for the lead role in a production of Swan Lake. As the director of the production, Thomas, surveys the class for his new prima ballerina, touching certain dancers on the arm as they warm up. Nina spins harder, faster and watches him as he watches them. He explains that his production of Swan Lake will be dark and visceral and the dancer selected would be required to portray both the purity and perfection of the White Swan as well as the passionate and villainous Black Swan. He finishes his recollection of the major plot points of Swan Lake and calls together the group of women he has selected for a tryout at the end of the day. Nina flawlessly portrays the White Swan in her tryout, but when asked to perform the role of the Black Swan, she falters. Thomas comments on the precision of her White Swan performance and explains that were he only looking to fill the role of the White Swan, Nina would be the perfect selection, however, she does not possess the raw emotion required to play the Black Swan. Disappointed Nina goes home to her overproctective mother and bedroom outfitted in light pink and decorated with stuffed animals. Her mother, once a dancer herself, never achieved the success she longed for and subsequently has internally vowed to spare her daughter from the harsh realities of stardom. Their relationship is much too close as Nina has no space that is her own in their small apartment and her mother's actions toward her are just plain creepy as she draws a bath for her daughter, inspects her body and clips her fingernails. They are the actions of a mother towards her five year old. It is in the realm of childhood that Ms. Sayers keeps her fully grown daughter. As Nina agonizes over the seemingly lost chance of the lead role with her mother, she decides to go back to Thomas to convince him of her ability to play the Black Swan. Soft spoken and unsure she proceeds to tell Thomas of her qualifications to which he shares that the role will be given to another. Broken hearted she turns to leave his office as he comes on to her. Struggling to break out of his grasp and away from his kiss she bites him and he is left to ponder a side he did not think Nina possessed. Minutes later the role is hers and so begins her descent into the life of the Black Swan. To help her she studies the ease of new dancer to the company, Lily. Her technique is not as precise as Nina's, but her passion is at the forefront of her dancing, the perfect Black Swan. Nina wavers between the two personalities and the result is a psycho-thrilling ride through the insecurities and longings of a dancer craving perfection.
Natalie Portman completely becomes Nina Sayers. She fully embraces a dancer losing her grip on reality, the struggles of cutthroat competition, the technique of a master performer. It will be remembered as a performance made for the likes of Portman, a perfomance wrought with raw emotion and perfection. The result is both Nina Sayers and Natalie Portman experience their own swan songs.
This is a once in a lifetime performance, deserving of recognition. As Portman proceeds through Oscar precursors she is looking pretty good. He biggest competition is Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right. Her performance was really great too. It was real and full of disappointment and the fight for preservation of family. She has never been recognized by the Academy and her past work proves she is deserving, but I hope this is not the year. My reason is I just don't think I'm going to look back and think her performance was a once in a lifetime role made for Annette Bening. She's good, really good, but Natalie Portman dove deep into mind, body, and soul of a dancer and the performance will not be forgotten.
I hope Aronofsky gets some recognition as well. A director nod would be well deserved. I'm not the biggest Aronofsky fan around, but it's clear that the man knows how to capture the art of metaphor. His film is disturbingly beautiful and a standout for 2010. I'm planning on seeing Black Swan again sometime over this weekend... maybe I'll have more thoughts to come.
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