"You could be brilliant, but you're a coward."
Make no mistake: Black Swan is carried completely by Natalie Portman's extraordinary performance as 'sweet girl' ballerina Nina Sayers, whose whose fall into the dark side is exposed devastatingly in mostly harshly-lit and unforgiving medium and close-up shots for most of her screen time. There is much more to admire in this compelling drama, but Portman's utter mental and physical focus is truly admirable. She is surrounded by a number of notable performances, from Mila Kunis as the sexually-charged Lily and Vincent Cassel's sharp take on the company's manager to Barbara Hershey as Nina's tightly-wound over-protective mother. Indeed, the film's main themes of obsession and mental and physical punishment are pushed so far that the viewer suffers with Nina as the intensity spirals into oblivion. Aronofsky constructs another intelligent, dizzying visual and aural experience, with the camera constantly on the move and a harsh soundscape that mirrors the ongoing cracking of Nina's fragile world. The mise-en-scene is wintry and emotionally cold, filled with mirrors and broken glass which emphasises Nina's utter isolation and despair in the ballet world around which her entire life is centred. There are a couple of narrative leaps in the final act which fail to convince, and ironically - in a film about pushing oneself to the limits of experience - her ultimate breakdown holds back slightly from being potentially truly terrifying. Nevertheless, Black Swan is a wonderful and bold cinematic experience overall that grips every step of the way.
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