About 20 mins into Black Swan I was beginning to think that maybe I had over-hyped it for myself. It wasn't terrible mind you, I just wasn't seeing what all the fuss was about.
Shame on me for rushing to judgment. This is one of the best and most intense movies I have seen all year.
Natalie Portman gives what is not only my personal favorite female performance of the year, but easily the best of her career. Her character Nina, is in a constant state of fear. She is defined by it. She fears her overbearing mother, her director, but most importantly she fears that she just isn't good enough.
Darren Aronofsky has basically made a movie that is pure psychological assault. He puts the audience in Portman's head, ensuring the we are just as frightened and confused about what is happening as she is, and once things start to really fall apart for Nina, Aronofsky turns the tension level up to 11 and doesn't let up until the very last frame of film. He literally does not let you catch your breath at all. In fact, as soon as the credits started to roll, half of the audience in the theater couldn't even get up, processing what they had just witnessed.
It's a bold move, to not give the audience that breathing room at the end of a film, and in the hands of anyone else, there probably would have been some sort of needless prologue, but thankfully Aronofsky is not that guy, and he has proven once again that he is one the absolute best working directors in the industry today.
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