A ballet dancer wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan.
Director:
Darren Aronofsky
Writers:
Mark Heyman (screenplay), Andres Heinz(screenplay) (as Andrés Heinz) , 2 more credits »
Stars:
Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel |See full cast and crew »
Storyline
Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.
Movie Reviews
So, for the first three quarters of the movie, I was actually enjoying the ride. At least this time, Abrams managed to make characters that I could care about. I was able to suspend my disbelief and go along in spite of many problems with physics and continuity. As the story went on, the unexplained bits and pieces of the plot began to wear thin.
Basically, if you read the negative reviews on here you will see the problems with this film; the complete rehashing of so many Spielberg clichés, multiple goofy continuity problems, and poor plot exposition and so on. I actually could have overlooked most of this for the positives, if it weren't for the particularly flat ending.
The rest of the film had enough great production values, character development and a great feeling of an old time 50's monster movie I really was having fun, until it got toward the end. They just couldn't pull all the plot elements together in a satisfying way. Worst yet, the ending fell totally flat. Where there should have been some tension building with a good climactic scene, it just kind of ended, plop, that was it, very unsatisfying.
I don't understand the trend with filmmakers like Abrams, Shyamalan and a others these days. There is a tendency to have characters with strong but contrived story lines, where the plot exposition is so minimal and choppy that it is difficult to actually develop an emotional connection with them. Then, it is difficult to tell where some of their motivation comes from. Ultimately, these characters act in ways that seem inappropriate under the circumstances. Anyway, I just tire with this kind of half-ass story telling. These guys need to watch some classic Hitchcock, Lumet, Reiner etc. and get some tips on plot and character development.
Bummer, this was so close to being a really good movie, if not great, it just needed better storytelling and a decent ending.