Black Swan

Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel; Music: Clint Mansel; Direction: Darren Arnofsky

Black Swan is an interesting film. And that’s just that, and nothing more. It has an interesting premise and a very clever script that makes the viewer conscious that it is being clever. Unfortunately, all that cleverness couldn’t hide the fact that the film is painfully predictable. The only plot revelation in the film becomes very clear to the viewer in the first two reels. And it is supposed to be a twist in the very end of the film, and to make you gasp in shock, only ends up making you weary. The rest of the film simply goes through the motion of delaying the end ‘revelation’ as much as possible.

Nina, Natalie Portman, wants to become a successful swan queen in the ballet Swan Lake and has a mandate to do the white and black swans, the good and evil. Once this is established, she is now surrounded by the usual suspects. The tyrannical but brilliant opera director, the concerned but domineering mother, the rival dancer who is sexy and more sensuous, the yesteryear’s swan queen who hates the director for retiring her and now you know the drill. Nina is terrified that she is going to fail on the stage and the director only makes it worse by constantly reminding her of how stiff she is, how her dance lacks the required sensuality, how terrified she is (as if Nina or the audience haven’t realised it by the end of the first feel.) The rival dancer, Lily, is obviously sensual, warm, relaxed and performs the dance routine with the ease of a seasoned courtesan. And Nina is insecure. If I were the director, I wouldn’t waste my time on Nina and would have cast Lily straight away. Her mother is domineering and doesn’t help matters by constantly reminding Nina of the travails of failure. There is no explanation of why Nina is tolerating her mother, worse still, at 23, why she should still live with her.

And whoever thought Natalie Portman deserves Oscar for this performance? When concerned, she looks like she’s suffering from migraine. When dancing she is truly stiff. It might be a natural performance, the one that the role required. Unfortunately even in the climactic, and mandatory, performance on the stage where she is supposed to be at her best, she isn’t any better. And her black swan routine is scary whilst it is supposed to be dark and seductive. I would have considered a supporting actress nomination for Lily for aptly giving migraines to Nina or the mother for being disgusting and reprehensibly melancholic, again, aptly required by the role.

The end is neither unexpected nor convincing. Black Swan works neither like a horror nor a psychological thriller. If anything, it works like what Roger Ebert termed it. In his review, Ebert called it melodrama. That’s actually a four letter word in India. Melodrama indeed.