What can I say about 'Black Swan' that for the most part has not already been said by people who have enjoyed Darren Aranofsky's (quite frankly more compelling) rendition of popular ballet 'Swan Lake'? Nothing. Seriously, I got nothing to add. Now, while I didn't think this was a brilliant film across the board, that it not to say that it hasn't earned the positive praise it has garnered, especially the tour-de-performance of Natalie Portman as troubled ballerina Nina Sayers who just wants to be the best she can be. This is one of those movies that you have seen time and again, but as I always say, it's all in the execution and this one takes off splendidly. Now what has THIS got to do with possession? Read on.
This movie has all the right ingredients to be an effective psychosexual thriller that deals with the losing and finding of identity, repression, fighting personal inhabitions and giving it to the great void. If we look at this movie from the angle of demonic possession, it may make you scratch your head, but look at it from this perspective- you have a fragile human soul in the form of Nina being victimized by her own insecurity, an insecurity that takes many forms, one of them being free-spirit Lily (Mila Kunis). Lily isn't the BEST ballet dancer like Nina, but she does her dancing with more emotion than Nina ever has, and this affects Nina profoundly. On top of that, Nina is haunted by her demanding stage mother who wants to live vicariously through her daughter, to feel the glory she misses now that she is 'old hat'. Nina is babied, coddled and shaped by her mum, even her room looks like that of a girl child's. Then there is the matter of her ballet instructor, Tomas (Vincent Cassell), a man who uses some pretty unorthodox methods to coax the best out of his dancers, one of them being sexuality, something Nina finds almost foreign.
All of these things comes to a head when Tomas surprisingly gives her the role of the White and Black Swan in his upcoming re-imagining of 'Swan Lake'. Nina is brillaint as the White Swan, but she lacks the passion and lust for life the Black Swan possesses, a fact that frustrates her when she sees Lily who is the very embodiment of that. So encompassing is this desire of Nina's that she subjects herself to various methods of becoming like Lily, one of them being striking up an actual friendship with her (and you know where THAT leads.). In another case, after a... shall we say, STIMULATING rehearsal with Nina, Tomas encourages Nina to pleasure herself so she is not so frigid in her performance. She does this, but then is inhibited by an outside presence which only inflames her frustrations. All of these things are demons that are possessing Nina, following her, getting into her mindset, influencing her actions, pushing her towards the very edge with devastating results.
Forgive me for giving in to the elephant in the room, but seriously, Natalie Portman for the most part IS the movie. Certainly not to take anything away from Kunis and Cassell, both of whom are in fine form, but this movie is all about Nina and her affliction, and Portman commits herself to her character. You have to remember that not only is Portman dancing, she is also acting through her dancing, and trying to emote what Nina is feeling must have been no small feat for Portman when she was preparing for this role. I'd say that the awards she has been given were DAMN well earned.
Hopefully now somehow I have convinced you that this is more than just what it has been sold to be, and more than just an excuse to show (admittedly steamy) sapphic sex. This film is for all intents a movie about possession, but this time, it's not Satan, Legion or Glenn Beck. It is about the demons of the mind and how they are perhaps the most potent demons of them all. In the case of 'Black Swan' while succumbing to your demons may lead you to glory, there is still a price to pay- would you be prepared to pay it?
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