"the film left me slightly cold and unsatisfied in it's finale and I left wanting and expecting more"

I honestly don't know what to say about Darren Aronofsky's ballet psychotic drama/horror/thriller, Black Swan, and I haven't made up my mind if that's a good or a bad thing. Firstly, I think I have to point out that this was a classic case of a film being spoilt by it's trailer, which covered nearly every aspect of the plot. Also, as the opening film at the Venice Film Festival and one of the biggest films at the London Film Festival, I had very, very high hopes for this greatly anticipated film. Naturally very few films ever live up to their hype, and I'm now starting to think, the less I know before - the better. However, despite not being exactly as enthralling as I hoped, Black Swan was still an extremely beautiful, exhausting and well acted piece of cinema.

Black Swan takes us into the highly competitive and dedicated world of ballet and follows one womans decent into madness, as she strives for absolute perfection in her new coveted role of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. This description actually sounds far more exciting and up my street than the film actually ended up being. In reality this madness presents itself in the bizarre notion that Nina played by a superb Natalie Portman, is actually turning into a swan, complete with goosebumped skin, feathers and generally some form of disturbing metamorphosis

The catalyst for Nina's disintegration is the pressure put upon her by the company's charismatic but predatory director Thomas, played by Vincent Cassel, and her overprotective and slightly disturbed ex ballerina Mother, played by an intimidating Barbara Hershey who babies Nina in her world of pink fluffy toys and soft, girly bedroom. Most of all Nina tortures herself in self harming, her rehearsing until she bleeds and with a constantly pained expression on her gaunt face. Her biggest problem is that Thomas feels Nina perfectly embodies the White Swan, but fails to loosen up enough to capture the darker, raw, sexual side of the Black Swan, and it is both roles she must inhabit in order to perfect the Swan Queen.

Unlike new rival Lilly played by Mila Kunis, who seems the antithesis of Nina's shy and private nature, Lilly is adventurous, sexy and free, everything that Nina needs to be to perfect her portrayal of the Black Swan. It is no wonder then that Lilly becomes the focus of Nina's delusioned obsession and jealousy, and the lines between reality and Nina's hallucinations become so blurred that the viewer see's the world through Nina's eyes, in all it's paranoid horror. This is mainly down to the fantastic direction on Aronofsky's part, which films the scenes through a hand held camera, almost documentary style, following every broken toenail, bleeding foot, and stretching muscle in wincingly painful, close up detail, adding to the grittiness and the reality of the relentlessly hardcore world of ballet.

The penchant for rawness is also reflected in the sexually charged nature of the film. As Nina tries to discover her dark side through Lilly, Nina is taken on a sexually liberating journey, and whether real or hallucinating, the scenes are pretty full on and almost unnecessary. What irritates me in these scenes are possibly Mila Kunis, as convincingly as she played the hand she was dealt, I can't help feeling she was slightly miscast and her character not properly developed, I felt I wanted more from her than a slightly cocky child who's 'wildness' seemed slightly cliched, ordering a burger whilst engaging in some flirtation with the waiter and smoking, gasp, in the empty reversal space back stage.

Natalie Portman's passionately consumed her role and gave an utterly mesmerising performance but the film left me slightly cold and unsatisfied at it's finale, so I left both wanting, and expecting more.