Black Swan (2010)

The "Black Swan" is a dark psychological thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky who also directed "The Wrestler". This film starring Natalie Portman as Nina illustrates the sinking of a ballerina into dark psychotic depths.

Nina (Natalie Portman) is a ballerina that wants more than anything to be the lead in Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". In Swan Lake, the lead must be able to be both the pure White Swan as well as the sensual Black Swan. The director of the ballet, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) does not think that Nina is capable of being the Black Swan. When Nina goes to Thomas to ask him about it and tries to kiss her, she bites him and he thinks that perhaps she CAN play it. He chooses her and from then on she begins to lose her grip on reality. Thomas brings in Lily (Mila Kunis) to be Nina's understudy and Nina begins to think that Lily is trying to take her spot from her. Nina begins to become more and more paranoid and begins to have delusions and see things that aren't there. One night Lily shows up at Nina's door and takes her to a club where she gives Nina drugs. Nina goes home, has a arguement with her mother Erica (Barbara Hershey)and imagines that she and Lily had sex. When she goes to work the next day and asks Lily about it Lily says that she went home with a guy and kids Nina about her having a crush on Lily. Then Nina really starts to lose it.

When opening night arrives, her mother tells her that she called Thomas to say that Nina was too ill to work that night, Nina runs there to find that Thomas has Lily as being the Swan. Nina talks to Thomas and gets her place back. She imagines that Lily comes into her dressing room and that she breaks a mirror and stabs Lily. She hides Lily's body and dances giving her best performance ever. She goes back to her dressing room to change into her next outfit and sees blood coming from underneath the closet door. Someone knocks at the door, it is Lily to congratulate her on her performance. Nina realizes that she imagined what happened and that she had really stabbed herself. She finishes up the ballet as the White Swan and as people have realized that she is bleeding, says to herself that she was "perfect".

This was a very good movie and performances were great by all. Both Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis trained for months for their roles and Natalie Portman won the Oscar and several other awards for her performance.

110 Minutes. Rated R. I GIVE THIS MOVIE THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.