Movie Masterpiece: Black Swan

Now here is a film, that can either be admired for it's brilliance and originality, or despised for it's unexplainable and disturbing material. After months of anticipation, revolving around Natalie Portman and the subject matter of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, I knew it would be something special. I finally got a chance to watch it before the Oscars on Sunday, and must say that it was beyond special; it was a masterpiece! Well-worth Natalie Portman's win for best actress. The film is unlike anything I've seen before, an artistic psychological thriller. It's easy to see how viewers may not like this film, perhaps due to it's random abstract method of story-telling. I thought it was ingenious; one of the best films I have seen in a long time. Driven by three factors; Natalie Portman's performance, Darren Aronfsky's directing, and Tchaikovsky's beautiful music from Swan Lake.

First there is the amazing performance by Natalie Portman, as the multi-layered character of Nina Sayers. Nina is an extremely fragile yet ambitious dancer, striding to prove to herself, to her mother, and to her director, that she can incorporate both the white and black swan in total perfect harmony. However as the story goes on, she falls deeper and deeper into madness, slowly consumed by the idea of the black swan. It goes without question that Portman rightfully deserved the Oscar for this performance.

Then there is the unique filming by director, Darren Aronofsky, who takes the viewer on a thrilling roller-coaster. He does a unique job at telling the story by blending reality with the surreal. It is through Portman's hallucinations, that the film really manages to push the envelope and create a multi-dimensional story. These hallucinations begin as minor ones, driven by Nina's overwhelming stress and pressure, and gradually begin to drive the story. The final sequence is exhilarating and sensational, where Natalie Portman loses her self into her character, and transforms into the Black Swan. She becomes consumed by the dark character, and experiences a full transformation on stage, a metaphor that illuminates her brilliant performance. However the brilliant performance ends in tragedy, where she falls so deep into the hallucination, that she loses her mind and unknowingly kills herself. An amazing story! A film that will be long remembered as a masterpiece.