So in of my previous post I talked about the Golden Globe nominations. As of tonight I have finally seen all the movies on the nominee list and am finally coming to a conclusion about them. I saw Inception in theatres a while ago, so I’d like to watch it again before I talk about it so I thought I'd review Black Swan first.
So where to begin? The only way to describe this movie is to say it is intense. It’s an incredibly overused word, one that I’m guilty of butchering, but it is really the most descriptive adjective for this review. You see, I am not a horror guy. I don’t do horrors. The closest I have come to watching a horror was when I watched Seed of Chucky and spent 35% of it in the bathroom pretending I wasn’t feeling well. That's a long time to sit bored in a bathroom! Or the time I “watched” House of Wax, where I spent 15% of the movie with my eyes open, 25% with my eyes closed or using the whole hands-as-blinds technique, and 60% of the time consoling the girls as they ran out of the room. Call it childhood sensitivity, call it considerate chivalry, either way I don’t do horrors.
On the other hand, I DO do thrillers. I will take a mindgame movie over any other genre pretty much any day. I love intellectual thrillers and having my mind toyed with (hence my unintentional minor in Psychology). Just ask the guy I saw Inception with: I giggled like a schoolgirl throughout the entire movie because I loved it so much (sorry about that man). So a movie that includes mind games, phenomenal music, good actors, and dance? I’m in. I wanted to go see this movie because I like being made uncomfortable; I have always found that the most impacting movies are the ones that don’t allow you to sit back in your seat (Hotel Rwanda, Saving Private Ryan, Dead Man Walking, The Pianist, Life is Beautiful, Schindler’s List – I’m aware there are plenty more but those are some that I have seen). Unfortunately, this desire to be uneasy made me disregard the R rating far too quickly.
This movie was uncomfortable, edgy, and passionate; certainly the farthest you can get from a “feel good movie”. I don’t want to give you the whole synopsis because that’s an easy find on imbd.com, but basically it’s about a girl who gets so caught up in expectations and being perfect that it consumes her. A better way to explain this movie is to explain how I felt at the end. My body was sore from having every muscle clenched for almost 2 hours and my fingertips were all pruney from being doused in sweat. Who knew that was even possible? Like I said, I don’t do horrors, and this was a lot more like a horror than I realized going into it, but that wasn’t the only contributing factor.
Here are some things that made this movie interesting:
The soundtrack. A huge thing I listen for in a movie is a good soundtrack because I think it can make or break the movie. Amazing soundtracks accompany almost all of my favourite movies and this movie was no exception. I found out on imdb.com that the soundtrack, composed by Clint Mansell, is a variation on Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” ballet, but played backwards and in a distorted manner. I will always be a sucker for classical music that is redone and distorted especially to sound darker and more dramatic.
The acting. I’m not a huge fan of Natalie Portman. While “V for Vendetta” was a redeeming quality, two words: Star Wars. Now that acting monstrosity was not entirely her fault- I blame Hayden Christenson- but still, it doesn’t get much worse acting than that. She was great in this movie though. The real standouts for me were Barbara Hershey as the pushy mom living vicariously through her daughter and Vincent Cassel because, even though you hate his character, you can’t help but admit he was good at getting you to hate him.
The storyline. I went into this movie thinking that I had entirely planned out the twist just by watching the trailers. And while I wasn’t completely off, that wasn’t the point. A good movie doesn’t need to re-invent the wheel, it just needs to make that wheel look brilliant. In this movie they played to my weakness for Moulin Rouge and did the whole play within a play plotline. It was a lot less obvious and whole lot darker, but it was still intriguing to watch the typical plot of the ballet and the plot of the main character play out at the same time.
The aftereffect. This movie blew my mind enough that I didn’t move during the entire credits, I didn’t talk the whole drive home, and I am still thinking about it constantly despite the fact that I saw it a week ago. Granted, I am aware that I am a particularly melodramatic person so these actions shouldn’t astound anyone who knows me well, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored completely. A powerful movie shouldn’t end the minute the credits start rolling, and this one certainly didn’t.
The message. While there were plenty of theatrics and incredibly tense moments, the message of the movie cannot be lost. It speaks of a girl who is surrounded by a lot of pressure to do better and a lot of self-critiquing that is obviously unhealthy. The dangers of striving for perfection is a universal message and one that I think way too many people can relate to. The movie is built on themes such as bulimia, abuse, and self-mutilation, and presents them in a terrifying manner. I don’t think I have ever seen a more impacting portrayal of the effects that pressure can have on a person. It shows the pain of being your own worst critic and being unable to find joy in yourself. It is hard to find time to feel sorrow in such a tense movie, but it really is heartbreaking once you consider how relevant these issues are.
So, so far, raging reviews, right? Unfortunately, it can’t stay that way. As much as this movie impacted me, I can’t recommend it to other people for one very simple and sad reason: sex. This movie is passionate and unfortunately it capitalizes on the intensity of sensuality to make it more dramatic. I did not read a whole lot of reviews before going to see it because I did not want anything to be spoiled (my curiosity combined with Roger Ebert/IMDB is not conducive to hiding movie secrets). Unfortunately that came back to bite me as I found myself on the verge of walking out multiple times. Maybe it was pride, maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was because my muscles were already cramped from clenching, but either way, I didn’t. This movie pushed boundaries because it knew that it could get away with it, and I really wish that that hadn’t been the case. It’s disheartening because it will probably get better reviews because of this fact, but it ruined the movie for me.
Five paragraphs of positivity and one paragraph of negativity reflects how I feel about this movie, but unfortunately that one negativity is WAY too big to ignore. Some movies have scenes you can easily skip through and you won’t miss a lot, but sexuality is embedded in a lot of this film. The scenes are rarely even necessary to the plotline which makes them that much more distasteful. They all add to the general feeling of discomfort that the movie presents, but the end result was just not worth it.
There’s huge potential this movie will do well at the awards but I just can’t support it. I've been trying for the last 20 minutes to post a link to the original version of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Finale to help you get a taste of what the movie is like (if you have a creative enough imagination), but for some reason blogger and youtube don't want to cooperate. Either way, go check it out if you have the time.
5 comments:
Well, I sure didn't see coming the twist ending to this review.
Was that sarcastic?
No. That was a hairpin turn. Very thoughtful review, by the way. I appreciated it. I don't really understand what you meant at the end though.
Thanks! I'm curious to see what your view is on the movie.
It was incredibly uncomfortable and at times excruciating. It was what a horror movie ought to be. The woman behind me spent much of the film whimpering her confusion and agony and I don't think she knew she was doing it. I've never been to a movie that sustained that level of tension for its entire run time. I agree that a dark sexuality is embedded in the entire film. Doesn't that, though, mean that it is crucial to the plot, by definition? This was not a "sexy" sexuality, cheaply trying to get audiences to like it on that level, at least to me. Rather a desperate, painful, and failed expression of all the issues built into her by her mother and her environment.
The music was striking. I think it was Swan Lake all the way through, only darkened and muddied as Portman's mind splinters. And Natalie Portman. This is one of the best performances I've ever seen. Portman is someone who has no trouble playing both swans. Look how perfectly vulnerable she is. Look at how clearly she is standing, tip toed, on a knife edge, and how she hides the pain where we see it perfectly. And look how formidable she is as the flashes of the black swan make their appearance. There are no cracks in this acting.
This wasn't a movie I enjoyed per se, but I respect it immesurably and I'd recommend it unhesitatingly to anyone who takes movies seriously. Of 2010 movies, I've seen Toy Story 3, The American, The Social Network and this. This was clearly the best of them.
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