Psychotic Swan Lake

Black Swan (2010)

First of all, I'm not a big fan of Natalie Portman, I mean she sure is a pretty girl but never seen her as a good actress. Second of all, a drama about ballet dancers really doesn't sound too promising, actually couldn't be any further away from things I find interesting. Well, there's also supposed to be a psychological thriller in there too. Now I'm a bit interested, but still the ballet part ticks me the wrong way. And it's directed by Darren Aronofsky. Now you got my attention. So I was surely looking forward for this, but with a bit of mixed feelings. Funny enough, it turned out to be a mixed movie as well. Right at the top I must say this is the best movie about ballet or basicly any kind of dancing I've ever seen. It's also one of the best thrillers I've seen in a long while. And the drama in it is mostly quite brilliant. Natalie Portman manages to do a great performance and the rest of the cast is quite good also. So yes, it's a great movie for sure. But a few things I didn't like. Some of the themes in it were a bit too common, the rebellion against the mother and the rivalry between the girls among other things. Now sure they were all there for a reason, all working towards the end, which was simply brilliant by the way. The thing is that the movie is not that common, with some quite brilliant ideas in it, so I would have hoped a bit more of a fresh touch on those subjects. Then again as they all work towards the goal in the end it didn't matter that much and the overall feel was quite great. This movie is also surprisingly scary, so the thriller bits work brilliantly. At points it managed to raise proper suspension and that's rare in movies nowadays. This movie didn't make me like ballet any bit more, sure I liked it in this one and maybe kind of got to understand it a bit more, but still wouldn't want to waste my time in it. Then again it's not even trying to make people like it more, it's trying to tell a great story and that it does great. Surely strengthened my belief that Aronofsky is one of the greatest directors of this century. I have a feeling that this is one of those movies which will grow on you when you watch it again later and that's always a sign of a classic.
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