Monday, January 10, 2011

black swan.


In high school I used to get obsessed with a couple of movies. They were beyond favourite movies and I could sometimes completely dissappear into them, I guess like a typical teenager who seeks escapism in a small town. I've been longing for a movie like that; a movie that could completely sweap me away, to take my mind elsewhere and send it into a new direction. I've been craving it. Which is why I feel so excited to tell you about this movie I saw the other day; Black Swan. What can I say other than that Natalie Portman deserves at least two Oscars for her performance. The story is quite simple; Nina is a ballerina. She gets the part as Swan Queen/ Black Swan in the ballet copany's new take on Swan Lake. She is the perfect pick for Swan Queen; innocent, perfect and beautiful. But to do the role as the evil twin Black Swan, she has to go into the scary territory of letting loose. Which turns into more than just a role, obviously. What I liked most about this film was the complexed yet simple psychology of Portman's character. I really didn't like Nina because she was so annoyingly weak, but at the same time I felt for her. She works so hard and she never gives up, you see her pain and feel her worries. As the movie builds up toward the end things get crazier and crazier. You wonder what's real and what's not real. Only because it explores the realities of a crazy person, and to some extent the mind of somebody creative who wonders into the darkness for the love of the art. This is a new take on Swan Lake but in the form of a psychologic thriller. Just like when "Oh Brother, where art thou" used The Odyssey as the base for the story. I just love it when movie makers does that; turn old and told stories in a new way and create lovely little analagies. It makes you see things differently. The familiar becomes forreign. As for the hero of this story, she is not sweet and innocent. In my opionion, the greatest moment of this movie is when the Black Swan enters the stage and change our perception of what a hero is.

No comments: