Length: 108 min.
Released: 2010
Natalie Portman plays Nina, a young ballet dancer who has worked her way up in the ranks of a professional company in a large metropolitan city. She lives with her mother (played by Barbara Hershey), who pushes to make sure her daughter gets to be the professional dancer she herself was unable to be. Nina struggles to emerge from under the wing of her overprotective mother. The directory of the company (played by French actor Vincent Cassel) wants her to play the Swan Queen in Swan Lake, which will require her to play both the white swan (innocent and beautiful), and the black swan (mysterious and passionate). To secure the coveted role, Nina begins a dark path of exploration, but starts to lose her footing. Portman plays the lead role
A dancer brought in from San Francisco (played by Mila Kunis) provides added pressure and competition. She seems to possess all the required characteristics needed for the Swan Queen role, which Nina views as a direct threat. Kunis' plays her character as both friendly and menacing, keeping the viewer guessing. Winona Ryder has a small part as the former prima ballerina displaced in favor of younger, more agile dancers, despite her own youth. Nina's empathy for her situation foreshadows her own turn in the same position.
Aronofsky slowly blurs the lines separating reality from imagined sequences, and at the end we are left questioning what was real and what was not. The film is certainly a psychological thriller, but is not a "psycho-sexual thriller", the way some critics claim.
Aronofsky shows the world within a professional dance company as cold and fickle as the winter wind. Despite their immense strength, the ease with which dancers can injure themselves and their vulnerability to scrutiny reveals an underlying general frailty of being human. The catty competitiveness between the young female dancers reduces their abilities to support one another as a family. Just as the line is blurred between reality and delusion, so too is the line between friend and enemy.
Aronofsky drives his film like a roller-coaster, with twists and lurches along the way. The actors convey their world with realism. The use of black and white as the color palette throughout the film is very effective. Strong patterns in black and white dominate the film. There is only some pink in Nina's apartment (evoking purity). The music conveys tension and propels the story forward. Tchaikovsky's score to Swan Lake provides certain scenes with extra emotion. (Although used for dramatic effect, the scene where Kunis eats a hamburger is unrealistic; dancers are unable to consume that much fat, especially during a performance season. She only ate one bite, however this was not the message conveyed.)
Like a true Grimm fairy tale, the film is dark but not morbid, and gripping but not scary. There is no moral at the end, but no happily-ever-after ending either. After several surprise twists, the film arrives at its conclusion, leaving the viewer with much to ponder.
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