Black Swan is the psychological journey of Nina (Natalie Portman), a coy, reserved, young ballet dancer at her peak who struggles with being perfect in her art, growing-up and becoming a whole person separate from her overbearing, overprotective mother and from ballet itself, separate from her focused compulsion to achieve perfection and separate even from her own womanhood. On her journey she learns that art occurs best in expressed passion which often causes technical imperfections and this fact maddens her on a deep level. She finds it painful to follow the urgings of her mentor, the choreographer (Vincent Cassell) of the ballet, to let go of perfection in her technique in order to convey emotions of the character she is dancing. He wants her to tap into her passion, her emotions and her repressed sexuality as she dances the dual roles of Swan Princess/Black Swan.
The Black Swan must seduce the object of the White Swan Princess' affections and steal him away from her ultimately leading to the White Swan's suicide. Nina's mother (Barbara Hershey), an overprotective former ballerina who never rose to her daughter's level of dance is dealing with her own madness as she lives vicariously through her 20-something daughter who she coddles, and treats like a child keeping her surrounded by stuffed animals and the bedroom decor of a preadolescent. This is the source of her personal and sexual repression.
Enter Lily (Mila Kunis), the street-smart newcomer to the ballet company who has exquisite passion in her dancing, but lacks the perfection in technique. Lily is irreverent and lives a full life. Although she is devoted to ballet, she also enjoys the worldly pleasures of illicit drugs and sexual promiscuity. Nina is both drawn to and repulsed by Lily, but is mostly intrigued and envious.
(It is worth mentioning that it was great to see Winona Ryder who was unrecognizable as the outgoing star of the ballet company who is a catalyst for some of Nina's madness.)
All of Nina's struggles culminate in an hallucinatory descent into madness becoming a living metaphor as it mirrors Swan Lake.
It was the multi-layer use of metaphor that I found most intriguing about this film. Metaphors were everywhere and were artfully intertwined. Natalie Portman's work is going to be rightfully celebrated with multiple honors this awards season.
Black Swan gets 4 out of 5 stars from this nobody reviewer.
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