Review: Black Swan

A Black Swan is something that is out-of-place. In the movie, it’s the ballerina. But this movie makes a ballerina’s life look horribly intense. Let’s see what I thought about this physiological thriller.

Screenwriting: B+

Pros: It was an intense movie, that’s for sure. And symbolism hid in every corner. Nina sees herself practically turning into the black swan. She sprouts feathers, grows swan legs, and even gets webbed feet. But of course, this is all just a hallucination. All of these events happen after she does something that brings her farther into becoming the black swan, sort of like to say she IS becoming the black swan.

Cons: The first half was boring. No action was written in. And there wasn’t anything super special about the writing. Maybe it was super clever to make Nina die in the end like the white swan commits suicide, but in thrillers, the camera angles and the acting really do all the work.

Soundtrack: B

Pros: During the movie, they slowly brought in the song when Nina turns into the black swan (more symbolism right there: as she slowly becomes the black swan, the music gets louder and louder until she IS the black swan). And when she is the black swan, the song is so intense, so powerful, and really brings the evil out of the dainty ballerina.

Cons: There wasn’t too much creativity involved. Swan Lake is a real ballet, and they basically took the music from that and put it in this movie. The music was good, and it kind of had to be in this movie.

Cinematography: A

Pros: Number one, camera angles are hard to go in a room full of mirrors, and number two, they’re hard to do while following dancers. And this cinematography? Wow. The camera followed the dancers in a smooth and dramatic way, bringing their emotion to life. It was complicated and well done.

Cons: Well, the only creative camera movements were during the dancing sequences. But the other camera movements had some deep dramatic value, so there is hardly a con for this category.

Acting: A+

Pros: Natalie Portman was fantastic. Period. She blew my mind. When she became the black swan, you could just see the evil reaching out in her eyes. Her performance in this movie was mind-blowing, and I can’t even describe it in words. She has the Oscar hands-down.

Cons: I wish I could split the acting up in leading and supporting. While Natalie’s acting was stupendous, the rest of the cast was mediocre. Mila Kunis did a great job as Lily though. But this is a character driven movie, and Natalie showed that. She drove this movie off the road and into the sky.

Special Effects: B+

Pros: The effects were very good, and believable. Like when she peeled back her skin, that was pretty disgusting. And when feathers sprouted on her arms and such. They were the common special effects, and they were needed in this movie to tell the story.

Cons: You could basically tell that most of the stuff happening wasn’t real. It was believable, but still had that animated look to that. I’ve seen movies with better animation. But it was still good.

Directing: A-

Pros: Darren Aronofsky is known for making character-driven movies and exposing the emotion behind the stereotype. And he did this in Black Swan. When you look at a ballerina, you see a dainty, happy girl. But Black Swan exposes the ballerina, and shows that being one isn’t a walk in the park. Darren definitely told this story well, and thrilled the audience. Also, a really creative idea to make this movie like Swan Lake. Bravo!

Cons: Darren directed the movie, but Natalie Portman pushed it to the extreme. Sure,Darren told her to practice ballett for 5 hours a day for a year, but it was really Natalie’s performance that made the movie great. But really, Darren, you could have done without the weird parts and it still would have been an amazing film.

Ending: A-

Pros: In the end of Swan Lake, the white swan jumps off a cliff and kills herself. In the end of Black Swan, Nina portrays the white swan, and after she jumps off the cliff and on to the mattress, she bleeds to death from stabbing herself. Good ending, and snows that the movie is Swan Lake, but with a dark twist.

Cons: It was a little sad to see Nina go. And I kinda don’t get why she kept saying “I was perfect” over and over again. Just a really sudden and abrupt ending. But the ending for me was still really, really good.

Overall: A-

Pros: This movie is like Swan Lake. A very dark Swan Lake. In Swan Lake, the white swan is in love with her lover, and the black swan tries to steal the lover. This results in the white swan killing herself. In Black Swan, Nina is the white swan, and is in love with her new part as the queen swan. Lily is the black swan, and tries to take Nina’s part. Eventually, Nina gets overworked and dies. This was a genius concept, and I love it.

Cons: Those scenes I skipped over were weird. The film could really do without the weirdness to be good. I mean, I saw it without the freaky stuff and it was still really, really good.