I Believe I Can Fly - Black Swan

5 out of 5 Popcorn Kernals

See Trailer Here

Life Imitating Art.

That is the story of Black Swan; a story of such voluptuousness speed and magnitude that it shoots off like a runaway missile. This is a movie that will surely captivate anyone who loves a good performance, a good thriller, a good love story, and some good drama. Black Swan delivers.

Nina Sayers (Natlie Portman - in a performance that rivals her role in Closer), plays a ballerina who is up for the part of a new production of Black Swan, created by Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassell). Nina is a perfectionist, and lives with her mother: crazy and possesive (Barbara Hershey), who once had dreams of being a great ballerina, but became pregnant with Nina so now lives through her. Being a perfectionist allows Nina to perform the White Swan portion of the Black Swan tale: a tale in which a white swan falls for a prince but her black swan twin sister sabotages the prince to fall in love with her, and the white swan is destroyed and thus destroys herself. So Nina is good at being nice, but to be the black swan she needs to learn to be bad.

This Little Piggy Stayed Home

She is chosen for the part, but it is to the forced retirement of another ballerina, Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder - amazing perfomance), who was at the top of her game but age (like Nina's Mother) has brought them to the end of their time. Then comes into the picture Lily (Mila Kunis - who will be forgotten for her role on Family Guy and That 80's Show, as she blossoms into one incredible actress). She drips all the sexuality that Nina lacks in this role, and soon comes very close to replacing her. When she arrives late for a rehearsal, and the coach says, "Take some time to warm up," and her response is, "I'm good..." I knew we were in for a ride.


This causes Nina to get in touch with her dark side...to actually BECOME the black swan. Her attempts seperate her psyche and the audience is introduced into a world where we are seeing Nina's reality and Nina's mind. The battle travels all the way to the stage unto the debut performance and this also affects the people around her.


I wont reveal too much on this film - it has a Momento/Inception/Sixth Sense feel to it. What I did notice in this film is the way the colors of black and white are used in this film. I'm not sure if this was the directors (Darren Aronofsky -The Wrestler) intent, but I noticed that the strong women (the black swans) in Nina's life, wore a lot of black - as opposed to her; with her white ballerina tights and white neck piece. Even the role of Thomas is done in grays which may account for his character being pulled in many directions by many of the women characters - keeping him neutral yet in control.

All the actors do an incredible job in carrying this role, and Nina (Natlie) wears this role as a second skin. It is known that she went through months of training and all the closeups are actually her performing. A dancer's life is not an easy one. These dances pit the body to do things that naturally it would never attempt. Her transition is fluid and believable as she struggles with creating then controlling her dark side. Thomas as well as Lily (Vincent & Mila) are able to turn on and off their emotions, are able to manipulate the people around them, and show equal talent at mastering the subtle nuances of human emotion through the slightest bits of body language.

The ending is almost expected, but not until the very end - because that is when your mind starts to instantly replay the film and put many things together. We are pulled into Nina's world so fast that we in parts become her, feel her pain, and understand her actions...and sometimes you're left in awe...with your fingers in the popcorn forgetting just where you are.