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TagsNatalie Portman stars in ballet-ploitation movie that hits some highs
BY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
MOVIE REVIEW
The first ballet-ploitation movie, "Black Swan" is a delirious mix of High Art and High Camp, with a touch of "High Anxiety."
Much of the fun of this movie comes from watching the intensely serious approach writer/director Darren Aronofsky and star Natalie Portman take to their loopy material. Fully committed says it all.
Pilfering bits from "The Red Shoes" to "All About Eve" to "Mulholland Drive," Aronofsky sprays them out in a fountain of soaring and plunging plotlines, swirling into a sort of "Lincoln Center Confidential."
Munchkin Portman here is re-imagined as rising star Nina Sayers, about to become the prima ballerina of a New York company because, it seems, Euro-trash balletmaster Thomas (Vincent Cassel) is tired of his former star/lover Beth Macintyre.
In a nastily nice bit of casting, Beth is played by Winona Ryder, a one-time fixture in the ingénue roles that now go to Portman. The lead here might have gone to Natalie because there are no actresses in Hollywood who trained as dancers; alternatively, it could be because Aronofsky's script is dependent on one without an ounce of comic sensibility.At work, Nina feels herself the target of Beth's ire, Thomas' lechery and everyone else's jealousy. At home, Nina's very protective mother Erica also seems strangely unconvinced that her daughter can handle the spotlight.
Played by Barbara Hershey as artsy and dearest, Mommy is a one-time dancer who gave it up, she says, because of an unfortunately timed pregnancy. Here's looking at you, kid.
Meanwhile, lithe, ferocious Lily has joined the company all the way from San Francisco. As Lily, Mila Kunis is scarcely bigger than Portman, but goes off on screen like a hand grenade, jolting the movie every time she's seen. Her animal grace is the opposite of Nina's poised technique, and one of them thinks they are in competition.
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Aronofsy's great conceit is to play off the story of the ballet itself. "Swan Lake" tells the tale of the princes Odette, turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. She can win her freedom by winning the love of a handsome prince, but her doppelganger Odile, the black swan, steals him away.
On stage, having a single dancer performing both roles explains the prince's mistake. Waiting in the wings of "Black Swan," this challenging part animates Nina's fantasy life. She has won a dream role, but where do her fantasies end?
Aside from her loyal legions of space nerds, Portman can rely on creepy barely pubescent sexuality, whether playing a Lolita-pop in "V for Vendetta" or in her Golden Globe speech after playing a non-stripping stripper in "Closer."
"Black Swan" capitalizes on that: as Nina, the 29-year-old actress has a pink bedroom full of stuffed animals, but also a willingness to mime masturbation for the camera, at least until she sees Mommy asleep in a chair. Or does she?
"Black Swan" is frank about the toll on a dancer's body, with a good sense of the physical demands of the art. Despite Portman's limitations, the dance scenes play well. The performance set pieces fly.
But this movie is more concerned with the stress on Nina's mind, since she's presented as such a fragile flower. Along those lines, it is even more fixated with pricking Portman's tiny body, and the resulting blood.
Yes, many artists suffer for their art. Many young girls mutilate themselves because of twisted psychology. Relatively fewer are mutating into swans, whatever they may think.
The confusion between the real and the artificial includes some lesbian fun, because it's the 21st Century and that's how we roll. "Black Swan' is not so much exploring these phenomena as enjoying them.
A side note: it will add immeasurably to your enjoyment of this picture if you are obsessed with necks and neckware. Arnofsky's camera spends much of its time bobbing along just behind Portman's thin shoulders, tracking her down corridors and into and out of rooms.
What seems exciting and urgent the first time tends to induce seasickness by the eighth episode in 20 minutes. That's outdone by a club scene where the usual strobe effects are compounded by Cusinart edits, as Aronofsky does his best to induce seizures.
Thoroughly silly, at times physically unwatchable, and unhealthily obsessed with young girls who cut themselves, "Black Swan" aims not so much at the Academy as it heads toward the Institute for the Treatment of the Very, Very Nervous. Will Nina get there in time, or will the birds crap on her? It's a trip finding out.
Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
