Z/Web

Where do I begin? I loved this film. It’s authentic, mysterious, magical, wonderful. It catches you off guard, puts you on edge, and makes you think. It’s full of so many powerful themes: young replacing old; the old living vicariously through the young; repressed emotional and sexuality; and the quest for immortality, greatness, and perfection. The film is supremely sexual without being titillating. It’s horrific without violence or gore. I think that’s what I loved best. My favorite scene was when the domineering mother catches her adult daughter scratching (an old bad habit) and furiously clips her fingernails with a pair of scissors as though she were a helpless little girl. It was so vicious, every snip so angry, you couldn’t help but cringe in terror. Movies today show lopped heads and limbs ripped off and we don’t bat an eye, but this scene (which is utterly harmless, for what serious damage could the tiny scissors do?) — will have you on the edge of your seat wincing and chills shooting down your spine.

The story is simple and clean and beautiful. A young ballet star has the chance to get her dream role as the swan queen where in Swan Lake she’ll play both the innocent white swan and the seductive black swan. It’s a challenge that will force her out of her comfort zone, make her have to feel rather than think. It takes her to a dark place, so dark she has a mental breakdown. As someone who’s been involved with theatre, I understand that completely. Such roles are heady and life-changing, forcing you to rethink everything you know about yourself. For a repressed person, they allow you to slip out of your skin and into a persona and behave in ways you normally couldn’t. I understand the mother, a former ballet star herself, whose career was cut short by her pregnancy, and now she unintentionally puts incredible pressure on her loving daughter. The mother is both awful and tragic, the perfect example of how genuine love can be cruel.

Everything about this film — the powerful story, the incredible performances by the leads (it’s Natalie Portman’s strongest role by far and it will be criminal if she doesn’t win an Oscar), the subtle and fascinating direction, the music — is amazing. It’s reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, but less claustrophobic. It’s a subtle film, delicate, with much depth beneath the surface. It’s the kind of film I could watch again and again and learn more from each time. The only flaw I can find, if it has any, is that main character’s repression keeps the audience slightly at a distance. That, combined with the strange and mysterious happenings, some of which might be the girl’s imagination, can be off-putting. But to me this is a minor issue, though I can see how some might be more disconnected from the story. I loved this. I can’t recommend it more highly. It’s not always easy to watch, but that’s what makes it so powerful.