Black Swan (2010)

Swan Lake. The prologue, when Rothbart casts his spell. Cut. A smiley and sweet Natalie Portman wakes up in a pink childish room. Although, her head lays down on a white pillowcase with black curlicues enveloping it. The first of too much other obvious signs we'll see representing duality or multiplicity.

The prologue is this same opening scene, the dream. It's not possible to be sure if the "dream" truly became reality, but we tend to believe it, though not literally.

Black Swan has been compared to Red Shoes and Repulsion among others. Indeed, but once we feel Vicky' s passion for dancing (Red Shoes), we can't feel it in Nina. The ballet seems to be only another neurose, maybe the closest symbol of the perfection she seeks. Once Carole (Repulsion) is really scary and intriguing, Nina is only a scared "little girl" we can only feel for. She's not complex or interesting at all, neither any of the other characters are. Lily, nothing but the tiring free-spirited femme fatale, could only be the alter ego of Nina's lack of depth, personality. All Nina needs to shine is to bring out her bad side that is, of course, mostly represented by sex and "drugs".

Being real or not, Lily and Erica, the mother, are both sides of Nina. Even if they really exist, we only know them by Nina's perspective: the way she sees them represent her own battle against herself. When the mother is pretty much the first against whom we rebel when claiming for liberty, it couldn't have a better choice than the mother figure in opposition to the liberal self, to settle down Nina's bad side. I had the impression that Erica's presence was allegoric in the masturbation scene; Nina would have felt her presence in the room. Instead, she only sees mommy when having pleasure = guilt. Also, Erica changes a bit as Nina's black side tries to come out: from a overprotective and stifling, but yet kind mother (all she does, even if in a wrong way, is to worry and try to protect Nina), a possible incest relationship is suggested what possible only happens in Nina's mind as all other sexual situations (the old guy on the subway, Lily, Thomas, etc). Nina is afraid of her own self and needs to find spoilers everywhere. She returns Beth's things thinking that they could have corrupted her. She battles against her mom (control) and she battles against Lily (chaos) to finally understand what Thomas said: "the only person standing in your way is you".

But don't take me wrong: it's another overrated movie that could have been very good, but that lacks of subtlety and a more consistent persona. Not to mention that all the "scaring" sounds and noises, red eyes and other things alike supposed to fright are boring and even made me laugh sometimes. And what about all the buzz around Natalie Portman has shocked Venice Film Festival with the lesbian scene? Do people really still get shocked and with such a scene? Intentionally or not, just another promotional material... Some tv shows have already showed much better scenes.

I really wanted to like it, but I haven't seen any spectacularity neither in the movie nor in Natalie Portman's performance. I'm sorry, but it's nothing than Natalie Portman being "nice" (in a certain point of Black Swan, the young Portman of Everyone Says I love You, crying because the boy she likes chose her sister, was there) and "bad", what she already did in Closer.
Explain something to me: Mila Kunis getting the Marcello Mastroianni Prize for young performance was supposed to be a joke?