Black Swan: A Sexual, Psycho, Ballet Thriller Movie
It is possible that you missed the buzz about this movie. Rated four stars by just about every movie reviewer, this is a silent thriller set in the Black Swan ballet and if Natalie Portman does not receive an Oscar for the lead role, something is wrong in Hollywood.
As I sat there, I was just about the only other guy. I began to think this was because it was a chick flick. Not so. Many of those in the movie were well senior citizens and I wondered had they known about the intense but brief lesbian sex scene, would they have attended. Other reviewers peaked listeners curiosity and no doubt many go just to see it. It is erotic, OMG. Maybe other lesbians attended it for that reason also.
I am sure Natalie Portman studied ballet and practiced the moves months before the movie went on location because she truly acted like an experienced professional ballet dancer in almost every way. Sean Penn, studied how to act and be like a mentally disabled person for almost a year before filming began for "I Am Sam", a heart warming movie about a girl's love for her Dad and how they communicated via Beatles' songs and lyrics.
Black Swan works on all levels. Natalie is psycho from the start that only grows more paranoia as she competes for the lead role. The paranoia distorts what she views as reality and this makes the movie viewer wonder if things did happen as they seemed to have, or did Natalie only obsessed about it. There are two sexual scenes, one is real and one is not, it happened only in Natalie's obsession about a competitor dancer. The real one is brief, the unreal one, longer and ventures into what some claim is "porn". But it is only later do you realize it never happened. Natalie becomes paranoid the other dancer is trying to steal the lead role when she is late to rehearsal, from then on, the psychosis only spins more and more out of control until the near end when the viewer witnesses a scene between the two fighting and the rival is killed, blood all over the dressing room floor. Natalie drags the body into a closet as blood oozes from under the door. So we think.
The show goes on and Natalie gives the performance of a lifetime in her pursuit of being perfect. She plays both the white and black swan to perfection-good and evil. It is only when she returns to the dressing room do we find out that the murder was only something she did in her mind. It is then do we find out (as she looks down toward her stomach) that while the mirror did break, she actually had stabbed herself badly in the psycho rage. She hides it just long enough to perform the final symbolic suicidal act of the Black Swan play except now she really does die as her wound hemorrhages out of control.
Go see it.
