Director: Darren Aronofsky
Year Released: 2010
Rating: 2.0
A talented, 'pure' ballerina (Natalie Portman, not fantastic but holding her own) starts to lose her damn mind once she starts playing the role of the White Swan in Swan Lake, while a rival dancer (Mila Kunis) seems to be trying to sabotage her efforts (or is it Portman's mind playing tricks on her?). For starters, this is entirely too literal - Portman's character's "real life" doubles the life of her character, the black and white outfits match the characters' 'personalities' - and it does the whole switch 'em, change 'em act too often, making it a superb effort in shallow cinematic trickery (with this and Inception and the mock docs released this year, audience deception is a sad fad). I do not agree in any way that the only way to achieve greatness in art is through self-destruction - it's usually a sign of severe mental illness (Portman's character isn't developed far enough to let anyone know how or why she's predisposed to such hallucinations; my viewing companion seems to think the movie's at least in part about the psychological side effects of an eating disorder). This is intellectually vacant but impressively stylized, like all of Aronofsky's work after Pi.
