Film Review "Black Swan"

This film is brillant. Everything about this movie is good. Where to begin. First I'll star with the story. *Spoilers to follow* The story is of a girl named Nina (Natalie Portman) who is trying out for the roll of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. She is a really good dancer, and while she is perfect for the role of the white swan (innocent, pure, almost virginistic) she can not get the feeling of the black swan (powerful, lustful, courauges). While she is practicing for the role, a new girl enters into the show, Lily (Mila Kunis). She is perfect for the role of the black swan, and is Nina's exact opposite in every way. While Nina is kinda shy and passive, Lily is sexual and forceful, things like that. To make a long story short, Nina embraces the role of the black swan, but in doing so, loses her innocence and also her sanity. I like the line that Vinncent Cassel speaks towards the end when he says, "You have to lose yourself in the role." And although he had been saying that throughout the entire film, you don't notice until the very end that that is what Nina is doing, she is losing her self, and becoming the black swan. In doing so, she loses her mind. In esscense this film is a sort of coming of age/loss of innocence story, but with a very dark twist. Nina loses her innocence, yes, but in doing so she goes completly mental, and in the end loses her life because of this insanity. I think the story also has to do with the idea of stress. I don't think it was a main theme, but I got the feeling of stress throughout the entire film, if it's not a theme, it is at least a sort of undertone. Now on to visuals. Darren Aronofsky is at the top of his game in this film. While his previous film, The Wrestler, visually was just your standard, run of the mill film, this is getting back to his Requium For A Dream days. It almost felt like a horror film the way in which it was shot. I jumped acouple of times while watching, and Nina's hallucinations are amazingly done. Sound design was again really good. I again got the sense of a horror film while watching. There are scratching and feather sounds in the film that will make your skin crawl, and that is what a good film will do, make you have an emotional response and really get into it. I believe a great film envokes 2 feelings in the viewer, one that is wanting more and one that is I can't watch because I don't want this to happen. This is the latter, it's almost a cringing feeling, that you don't want to watch, because if makes you feel weird...but you can't look away. The last time I felt this was during The Dark Knight, I didn't want The Joker on screen because I knew he would do something bad, but I also wanted to see what he would do next. That sort of feeling. Natalie Portman is really good in this film. I always say her best role was in Leon The Professional, this performance is right up there with Leon. Her descent into madness is one of the best depictions of downfall I have ever seen. It is right up there with Emil Jannings in The Last Laugh, which is the best performance of a broken down man I have ever seen. Ok, now on to some critasism, and there is not much. Although Natalie Portman is great in her role, I am question weither it is actually her that is great, or the way the film is shot. I almost have a sense that the way the scenes are shot make the downfall more amazing. Also, was Lily real? I think I read somewhere that she is not, and it is sort of like a Fight Club sceneiro, but not all the way like that. All in all, the film is great and everyone should watch it. One last thing I just remembered, kudios to Mr. Aronofsky for the visual dichotmoy of Lily and Nina, with with 2 colors black and white, I thought that was great. Conclusion time, go see this film. 9/10