Black Swan - A

In theaters (limited). Rated R, 103 minutes. Trailer.

You really have to cherish those 3 or 4 times a year when you settle into your theater seat for a highly anticipated film. Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan had that feel last night with a buzzy audience at Angelika Plano. The film is an unrelenting psychological drama with one of the most intense and visceral final acts of the last several years. Natalie Portman gives herself over to her role as Nina, an ascendant ballerina obsessed with achieving perfection and guarantees herself an Oscar nomination (and likely win) in the process. Her performance is the centerpiece of a story that tells of Nina's training for her debut as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake and the night of her debut. Click below for more on BLACKSWAN:

To some extent, the film plays like a horror film with its tension, jumpy moments and occasional violence. As should be expected with any Aronofsky film, the film is frequently uncomfortable as he focuses on the explicit details of Nina's paranoia and the grueling nature of her ballet training. Nina is surrounded by weirdos, including a creepy Barbara Hershey as her smothering mother and a chauvinistic ballet director (Vincent Cassell). She is perfect and controlled, but lacks the flair and confidence that Cassell thinks she needs as the to be the black swan (a key to her performance as the Swan Queen). As she struggles to achieve the intended effect, she begins to transmogrify and loses track of reality. A further discussion of the plot would hurt the initial viewing of the film, so I'll stop there.

Aronofsky again relies heavily on handheld cameras that are almost too close...we feel Nina's anxiety and stress as she does. He places black and white motifs throughout the film providing clear visual cues. The film reminded me in certain ways of Fight Club, King of Comedy, Raging Bull and The Wrestler in different ways. His presentation of ballet is very unglamorous. He shows it as a marginal art form that does not have mass appeal; it provides a highbrow version of the wrestling in The Wrestler. All of the actors were superb, including Mila Kunis as the black swan type rival ballet dances oozing with all of the sexiness and recklessness that Nina lacks and a tragic Winona Ryder as the outgoing prima ballerina.

The music is powerful and its crescendos in the third act are amazing as they track the visual presentation and character progression of Nina. I can't wait to see this again in the theater.

I should note that this is not for the faint of heart. There are lesbian scenes, self-mutilation, and some blood and graphic violence.

My favorite critic, David Denby of the New Yorker, didn't have the same reaction...his summary sentence is: “Black Swan” is a pompous, self-glorifying, and generally unpleasant interpretation of an artist’s task." Even the great ones are wrong sometimes!