Reviewing a movie after it’s won its Oscar and BAFTA for star, Natalie Portman, is like daring to criticize a classic. Did Natalie Portman deserve an award portraying Nina, a sexually frustrated ballet dancer who wins the lead in “Swan Lake?” Maybe.
Seeing BLACK SWAN for the first time – now released on video – I was very impressed by the cast director Darren Aronofsky (PI, THE WRESTLER) had to work with. This isn’t a typical ballet movie – the classic THE TURNING POINT comes to mind. Nor is it too far from a STEP UP pop culture dance movie where “the dancer becomes the dance.” Part drama, part internal horror, BLACK SWAN provokes the audience to worry about Nina’s journey and ambition as she tries to shed her inhibitions and evade her obsessive stage mom played to searing perfection by Barbara Hershey, almost unrecognizable with her shaved Judy Garland-like eyebrows.
Nina wins the lead role of the Swan Queen after has-been star dancer, Beth (smart casting of… wait for it… Winona Ryder!) is ousted from the dance company as well as from the affections of caddish French choreographer, Thomas (the wonderfully Vincent Cassel).
Thomas is unhappy with Nina’s dancing. In particular, he wants her to embrace the dual role of White Swan (virgin) and Black Swan (seductress), so he breaks lots of Human Resources rules by trying to push Nina to get in touch with her sexual self. 
But Nina lives at home with her mother, a dominating, control-freak of a stage mom who gave up her own dancing career to raise her daughter. We haven’t seen a mom this crazy since CARRIE.
Adding to the pressure of pleasing her mother and her director, Nina becomes paranoid over a new dancer, Lily (more inspired casting with the surprisingly good, Mila Kunis) who seems determined to steal the lead from her.
On one level, it seems that THE BLACK SWAN moves along just to get Nina laid. If she has her first Big O, she’ll understand the Black Swan. But the film operates on a number of levels, making the pretty and elegant world of ballet more of a nightmare. The imagery is gritty and haunting – more in line with THE EXORCIST than, say, FLASHDANCE.
Back to Portman. She hits all the right notes as a sexually frustrated young woman, but it’s the superb trio of Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey and Mila Kunis that gives Portman the environment to thrive. Where were their Oscar noms?
It’s also a real pleasure to see Winona Ryder back – her waif-like features and smokey eyes a reminder that before Portman, Kunis, and Keira Knightley, it was Ryder who was Hollywood’s favorite ascending high-cheekboned brunette beauty.
A few years ago, Portman did a gritty black/white comedy rap on Saturday Night Live, and THE BLACK SWAN reminded me of Portman’s work to get away from the bland pretty princess Armidala of STAR WARS fame. Mission accomplished!
Highly original, THE BLACK SWAN is a gripping movie you won’t easily understand or forget!