Darren Aronofsky Does it Again in "Black Swan"

Sometimes you just run across a movie that defies you to try and give it a review. In fact, it defies you to try and explain it to your friends when you want to talk about movies you've seen recently. These are movies that are so delicately and intricately put together that revealing even the slightest thing in the wrong way causes the entire mystery and fun out of the movie. Darren Aronofsky's movie Black Swan is just such a movie.

If I were to sit here and tell you the plot, you would scratch your head and wonder why anyone would want to see it. However, once you see this movie, I guarantee you that you will be unable to forget it. Whether you loved it or hated it, I also guarantee you and that you and your friends or loved ones who saw it with you would be discussing it and talking about it long after it's over. It's just that kind of movie that leaves things open to debate and will leave many viewers confused and wondering what happened. This is the kind of movie that forums on the internet are meant for.

The movie stars Natalie Portman in a performance that is fearless, inspired and dazzling. Sometimes a movie can be driven by a single performance and Portman's is that kind of performance here. If you go to see this movie for nothing else, go see it just to see her in the role of Nina Sayers. The entire movie is told from her perspective. There is not a single scene where Portman is not featured. There are times her face, or the back of her head, fill the entire frame. We see nothing that Nina cannot see and Nina does not see many things and, at least twice, backs into someone.

Black Swan is set in the world of ballet. It is a world that is baffling to nearly anyone who is not in it. The physical demands must lead to a life that no one outside of the ballet world could possibly understand. It must be comparable to being a model in the constant concerns over weight, age and appearance.

Nina Sayers has been dancing in a New York ballet company for some time. Her mother, played by Barbara Hershey, gave up her career as a dancer to raise her. Nina has lived, in a gross understatement, a sheltered life. She is on a personal quest to get every performance perfect. As such, she is a brilliant technical dancer. She practices and practices to the point of pain and agony and gets every move right. The problem is, she has lived such a sheltered life that she has not lived and is so determined to be technically perfect, she has trouble showing any emotion.

Vincent Cassel plays the man in charge of the dance company Nina works for, Thomas. How arrogant is he? So arrogant that his recent scheduled of dances "re-imagines" the classic works. He has a reputation of sleeping with the talented young ballerinas that he makes into a star. His previous flame, Beth (Winona Ryder) is now too old. He sets his eye on Nina.

Thomas wants to do a new version of the classic Swan Lake. He sees Nina as perfect for the character of the pure White Swan Princess. The problem is the role calls for the star to perform two roles. She must be the pure, white, virginal white swan but also the temptress, villainous black swan. Nina is perfect for the white swan, but Thomas sees she is not able to handle being the black swan. She has no passion, cannot seduce.

Before long Thomas is trying to seduce Nina. At the same time, into the fold, comes a new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis). Lily is fresh to New York from San Francisco where she, somehow, caught Thomas' eye. She is everything that Nina is not. Lily is almost pure sex. She is not as technically good as Nina, but she has passion, intensity and can seduce. She drinks, she shows up late, she smokes and does drugs.

Of course, Nina and Lily are drawn to each other. As Nina grows closer, emotionally, to Thomas, she begins to see what Lily can bring to both the role of the black swan and to Thomas.

This is where it becomes difficult to tell you what happens. This is a psychological thriller on par with any of the best. It harkens back to the work that brought Aronofsky prominence in 1998. That movie was called Pi and it dealt with a math genius searching for a magical number that would reveal the very name of God. The pursuit of that number led him down a road to paranoia and madness. Some similar themes are explored here.

This is a movie, like most of Aronofsky's, that does not wrap up everything in a nice, neat little bow. As such, many will probably be confused. That is not a bad thing. Only Hollywood has decided that each plot strand must be tied up nicely and neatly in a way that leaves no one in the audience challenged or trying to figure things out for themselves. Aronofsky is smart enough to treat the audience as intelligent beings. He likes the challenge the people who see his movies. Those who are willing to let him take control and lead you where he wants you to go reap the rewards.

Portman is a wonder in this film. This is a bravura performance worthy of praise and awards. She spent months learning how to dance like a ballerina. Although there were professionals on the set to step in and dance for her, most of the footage is really Portman. However, as good as she is with the dancing, the fearlessness by which she is willing to delve into the mind of Nina Sayers is truly brave. To say much more is to reveal too much.

Aronofsky set the awards scene on fire just a couple of years ago with The Wrestler. He has said that Black Swan is a companion piece to that. I think the two movies have very different tones, but both deal with someone determined to do whatever it takes to achieve their dreams and their career. Black Swan should get the awards people buzzing again. At the very least Portman deserves a nod or two.

This is one of the best movies of 2010.