So the question of “this week in movies” might be: Is “Black Swan” an ugly duckling or a rare beauty?
While I enthusiastically vote the latter, it’s no surprise that many viewers will be torn when it comes to director Darren Aronofsky’s perversely magnificent psychological thriller, starring an undaunted Natalie Portman as a ballerina who gets the part of a lifetime — the Swan Queen and her dark double — if only she can keep it together.
“Black Swan” is at once serious and silly, absurd and artistically stunning, engaged and wildly boneheaded.
The screenplay — penned by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin — mixes a cocktail of sources. Among them: Roman Polanski’s plunge into female hysteria, “Repulsion”; Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “All About Eve”; and Aronofsky’s own performance drama, “The Wrestler.”
Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 19th-century ballet “Swan Lake,” of course, took fairy tales of enchantment and dark magic as its foundation. And fairy tales themselves represent the tortured and twisted fears and wants of we poor humans.
Obsessively dedicated, emotionally stunted, Nina Sayers (Portman) has a shot at moving from the ballet corps to a soloist role. The New York ballet company lorded over by artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) has an aging prima ballerina (Winona Ryder) and plummeting subscriptions. Whom will he promote? The technically gifted Nina or fiercely spirited newcomer Lily, portrayed with carnal ease by Mila Kunis? Nina’s a perfect fit as the Swan Queen but too rigid for the Black Swan.
From the start, Nina’s anxiety is high. She appears to spy her double more than once. She gnaws her cuticles ruthlessly. Or does she? This teetering is central to the movie’s allure. The pas de deux between Nina’s story and the “Swan Lake” characters is vital and hallucinatory. And there’s little straightforward about “Black Swan,” which enters the ranks of fine films in which the protagonist’s madness is mirrored by the film’s unfolding narrative.
Portman gives a performance that feels as powerfully unhinged as it is deeply disciplined. That’s the idea. Will Nina’s rise be breakthrough or breakdown?
Frenemies abound, beginning arguably with Nina’s mother, Erica, with whom Nina lives. After a day of back-breaking, toenail splintering work, the 20-something returns to a room of stuffed animals and pink fabrics. It’s not pretty, and production designer Thèrese DePrez goes all out.
Barbara Hersey portrays the retired ballerina and concerned mother. Is she a zealous protector or jealous rival?
And what of Lily — friend or foe, kind or conniving? Whichever, Kunis makes for a likeable onscreen presence. Yet another alum of “That 70s Show,” she proves what a unbelievably good eye that slight television series casting folk had.
French actor Cassel is erotically charged as the manipulative, visionary artistic director who dumps embittered ballerina Beth Macintyre in search of a new “princess.”
In order to be sublime, “Black Swan” risks being ridiculous. The filmmaking is often devastating. Matthew Libatique’s camerawork, Dan Schrecker’s visual effects and Andrew Weisblum’s editing allow for dramatic, unblinking, fantastical transformations. Composer Clint Mansell’s score entwines with Tchaikovsky’s looming, glorious notes. Yet, Aronofsky and his writers revisit not particularly updated notions about female sexuality in terms of hysteria and frigidity, the transit from Girl to Woman via lesbian desire and heterosexual sex. At times, “Black Swan” verges on laughably old school. Still, what a brazen, bold riff on the cost — physical, emotional — of art. With “The Wrestler,” Aronofsky revealed and identified with the battered, brutal, not entirely bogus artistry of Randy “The Ram” Robinson. Why not embrace a ballerina’s belief in that all too discounted state called “transcendence,” in that cruely elusive prize “perfection”?
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com; also on blogs.denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
“BLACK SWAN.”
R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use. 1 hour, 43 minutes. Directed by Darren Aronofsky; written by Mark Heyman, Adres Heinz and John McLaughlin; photography by Matthew Libatique; starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder. Opens today at the Mayan theater.
