Black Swan: A Review (with spoilers)

There are spoilers ahead, so don’t read any further unless you want to know what happens at the end of the movie.  Seriously, you have been warned. 

Photo Credit: AP/Getty Images via http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/17/portman.black.swan/index.html?hpt=Sbin

So last week I saw True Grit and Black Swan.  I still need to see The Fighter and The King’s Speech and I should be pretty set for movies before the Oscars.  True Grit was a spectacular movie with superb acting by the entire cast.  Hailee Steinfeld did a great job and should definitely be in consideration for Best Actress.

But the hands down favorite for Best Actress is Natalie Portman for her work in Black Swan.  And that recognition would be well-deserved.  But I did have a couple of reservations with the movie.  Overall, it was alright, but not exactly my favorite movie.  In some ways, it reminded me of Requiem for a Dream, where you don’t know what is real or imagined (due to drugs instead of the the purely psychological factors in Black Swan).  Nina in Black Swan is definitely facing some real psychological issues, but I would have enjoyed it more if it were a little more ambiguous and played up the more fantasy and horror-like aspects. 

Instead of neatly tying up the ends of the movie and showing that Nina imagined herself killing Lily and really stabbed herself, I would have had her jump off the stage at the conclusion of the ballet and just fading out (black or white, you can choose).  Leaving it more ambiguous would have been a more intriguing ending I think for the audience to decide if Nina was really just imagining it or was it something more sinister going on.  No need to wrap it up at all.  It just seemed the last few minutes were too by-the-book compared to the tone of the rest of the movie. 

Photo Credit: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/flipbook/flipbook.php?id=79&image_id=5&countdown=5

One thing that I really enjoyed and hadn’t heard anything about until I saw the movie was Wynonna Ryder as Beth being pushed aside for a newer, younger lead in Swan Lake.  I also thought that Mila Kunis did a fabulous job and probably is deserving for an Oscar nomination also, though she might be hampered due to the lack of screen time.