Black Swan - review

Natalie Portman stars in this psychological thriller as Nina Sayers, a professional ballerina desperate to prove she can dance both the demanding roles of the white and black swan in Swan Lake.

With the pressure mounting and the director favouring newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis), Nina pushes herself harder than ever to catch his eye and to prove to everyone that despite her innocent demeanour, she is capable of portraying a dark side.

But as Nina strives for perfection, the strain takes its toll. With her mind beginning to crumble and lose control, Nina’s whole world becomes the role of the black swan, but with her quest for the perfect performance pushing her to breaking point, Nina’s want and need to be perfect pushes her over the edge.

As a former dancer (not professional) I love watching films about dance, especially ballet and was excited about seeing Black Swan as it was going to show the side of ballet which no one gets to normally see. The pressure and strain put on a dancer to be perfect isn’t what people think about when they see a ballerina beautifully gliding along the stage, so I was excited to see how this would be portrayed.

I did enjoy this film as it equally focussed on the psychological effects of stress as well as the ballet and I’m glad that I can say that I’ve seen it, but I don’t think it lived up to all the hype surrounding it when it was released. There were so many comments made about it not being realistic and portraying ballet directors in a bad light, but I think despite the fact that it tried to show a different side to ballet, it was only a film – which can be enjoyed as a film and shouldn’t be taken as a direct representation of the world of dance.

Having said that, I would recommend it to everyone to watch, but I personally won’t be adding it to my DVD collection.