I FIRST saw Black Swan just a day after the King’s Speech, and it is this film which stays with you, rather than the ultra-safe, though brilliantly acted, Colin Firth piece.
Natalie Portman deserved her Oscar for her role as troubled New York ballet dancer Nina Sayers, who is chosen by the company’s artistic director (Vincent Cassel) to play the lead in Swan Lake.
Jealousy grows among the other dancers, not least former prima ballerina Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder) who is deemed too old by her former lover Cassell – Winona? Too old? What’s that about!
The director challenges Nina to embrace the darker side of her personality, to help fully bring the Black Swan’s character to the stage in her dancing.
A self-harmer with a protective mother still living out her own dreams through her daughter, it’s a dangerous beast to unleash.
Wracked with self-doubt, especially when beautiful Lily (Mila Kunis) is cast as her understudy in the treasured role, she embarks on a self-destructive whirlwind of nights out, drinking and even drugs.
The eroticism meter disappears off the scale in a scene where Nina and Lily end up in bed after a wild night out.
The question is did it really happen or is it all just a product of Nina’s increasingly disturbed imagination?
The ballet sequences are brilliant, with Portman’s months of training bearing spectacular fruit.
One slight criticism is the film’s last half hour, where it sometimes feels a little confused at what it actually wants to be.
But the psychological drama at its heart is an enthralling and emotional ride.
llll lll
Gulliver’s Travels (PG)
LEMUEL Gulliver (Jack Black) works in the post room of a New York newspaper, where he pines for travel editor Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet) from afar. In order to impress Darcy, Gulliver blags a travel assignment to the Bermuda Triangle, where he is swept into a swirling column of water and regains consciousness as a giant in the land of Lilliput.
Feared at first by the tiny inhabitants, Gulliver ingratiates himself to King Theodore (Billy Connolly), Queen Isabelle (Catherine Tate) and their daughter Princess Mary (Emily Blunt) by explaining that he is known as President The Awesome back in New York. Gulliver’s Travels rides roughshod over the subtle themes of Jonathan Swift’s classic novel. Rob Letterman’s broadly explores the corruption of a humble man but Black bulldozes through every scene like a child.
ll ll
