This Is Gonna Sound So Weird, I Know, But I Wish Black Swan Was Much Freakier Than It Is

Remember how Black Swan was an actual box office phenomenon? This thing grossed well over $100 million domestically despite being such a crazy horror film that frequently relies on the kind of stylized atmosphere that audiences have rejected in many other motion pictures. It's odd, it's crazy, it gives ya a little hope for the world that something this strange can find such an audience. It's also a movie that obviously resonated with plenty of people too given its sheer ubiquity in pop culture since its initial release, though I must say I'm the Grumpy Gus of this scenario because I found Black Swan to be among director Darren Aronofsky's weaker movies, though it's still got plenty of virtues to extol.

The plot of Black Swan concerns the life of Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a ballet dancer who works incredibly hard at her craft and is constantly looking for ways to launch herself to the next level of prominence in her field. While she's perfecting her moves in the realm of ballet, she has to live with two different but always prominent abusive relationships that manage to warp her psyche in subtle ways, the first of which is the relationship she has with her instructor Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) and the other is the relationship she shares with her overly controlling mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey).

Nina's dedication to her craft finally pays off when she garners the lead role in her production companies performance of Swan Lake. During the rehearsals for this show, she begins to dedicate herself all the more strongly to her ballet routines and she and Thomas begin a quasi-relationship. Nina also begins to stand up more to her mother and becomes more aware of both her sexuality and co-worker Lily (Mila Kunis). Did I mention she's also suffering from a skin disease and repeated bouts of delusions? Show business is never easy, but in her attempts to perfect the role of the Black Swan, Nina may just push herself to the breaking point and beyond, all in the name of being the perfect dancer.

Both the most notable and the oddest criticism I can lob at Black Swan is I wish it were actually more strange than it is. Out of Aronofsky's filmography, this one's channeling closer to the more abstract sensibilities of Pi and Mother! compared to the more mythic contemplative pieces of the likes of Noah, The Wrestler or The Fountain and that means the viewer gets plenty of odd imagery that are meant to make you question what kind of grasp Nina has on reality. To be sure, none of it's bad, but it felt kinda rote to me, going down the Kafka-inspired route to symbolize how much Nancy has become immersed in the world of the Black Swan ballet results in one or two interesting pieces of grotesque imagery, but it feels more like Aronofsky's debut feature Pi in that the stylized ways of showing off the protagonists fractured psyche feel less bold and distinctive than they should.

I say that's a weird criticism because Aronofsky is not known ever for holding back but both in the context of his larger resume and on its own merits, the stuff in Black Swan felt a bit too derivative of other gradual transformation movies like District 9 for my taste. A number of the instances of heightened imagery failing to really hit the mark, combined with some over-the-top moments (like a piece of camerawork framed on Nina's mom that practically screams out to be accompanied by a "DUN DUN DUN" sound effect) that fail to work properly in the context of such a somber movie, not to mention an overbearing score by Clint Mansell that too often overwhelms the on-screen action in an ineffective manner, did leave Black Swan feeling lackluster in key respects for me.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing to appreciate here, far from it. Aronofsky still knows how to get great performances out of his actors and he most certainly does that with Natalie Portman, who does a fantastic job embodying the timider and closed off version of Nancy at the start of the story before doing similarly strong work portraying the characters gradual psychological decline, while both Portman and the various stunt people doubling for her do a lovely job with all of those complex ballet moves. Mila Kunis also leaves a noticeable impression as Lily, basically the one normal person in a movie filled with heavily stylized individuals.

While the directing and editing aren't as distinctive or noteworthy as in the best Aronofsky projects, there are still some really interesting visual choices in executing this story, particularly in Matthew Libatique's cinematography which does a fine job filtering Nina's loosening grasp on reality through the traditionally heightened visual prism that conventional ballets are told in. I wish the visual choices in Black Swan could have result in more audacious story choices since it feels too often like the movies holding back from getting really entertainingly crazy, but it's still a decent foray into psychological horror that's anchored by one of Natalie Portman's stronger performances.