The Swan of Swans

Every once in a while comes a book or movie that will make you stop and wonder. Every once in a while comes a book or a movie that will shake you up. Black Swan is unique, it will do both.

Before I set out to watch the movie I was privy to a lot of feelers saying that the movie was dark, lesbian, and scary and one person had told even me it was based on a ghost. Not all of the people who contributed to this had seen the movie but it had created a buzz allright. With Natalie Portman winning the Oscar the talk about the movie increased manifold and the number of people wanting to watch the movie doubled. Darren Aronofsky has directed the movie and after coming out of the movie I was in total awe for the director. The story is very difficult to be expressed. When you put it in words people may get a semblance of it and hence this is one of those stories that can be better understood when read rather than seen. But what Mr. Aronofsky has done is put the story in visuals that not only deliver a complicated story succinctly but also makes it a visual spectacle not for its brilliant graphic effects but more for the deep essence of the characters that are beautifully portrayed.

The Black Swan is a story of a Ballerina who aspires to be the main lead of their dance show, Swan Lake. The erstwhile Swan Queen, Winona Ryder, is fired and hence Thomas, Vincent Cassel, the director of the show is hunting for a new face. Nina Sayers, Natalie Portman, is one of the dancers of the group and she has one dream that is to be Swan Queen. Now, the character of the Swan Queen is a dual role. One is a soft feminine white swan which is in love with the Prince and the other part is the evil seductive black swan that seduces the prince breaking the heart of the white swan. Thomas is convinced that Nina can play the white swan perfectly but the portrayal of the black swan is the problem. The story unravels with its mysterious turns and twists and converges into what makes Nina play the perfect Swan queen. Mila Kunis plays the character called Lily and she is the exact opposite of Nina. Nina yearns for perfection getting each of her moves perfectly whereas Lily has this natural aura of a dancer. She doesn’t have the perfect technique but she is natural in portraying both the characters.

The movie is about a woman who is obsessed with that one dream she has that is to play the part of the Swan queen perfectly. She has one ambition and all her waking hours take up in the dream of becoming that person. She is seen continuously disappointing her director in portraying the black swan. She is a person who is a complete closed book, keeps very much to herself, sensitive and doesn’t know or want anything more than being the perfect Swan queen. What she has to do to play that part is become one with the character and feel it. This becomes her struggle and she has a secret to which only her mom is privy to. The movie goes from scene to scene seamlessly telling one part of the tale to the other. The story is so gripping that even regular movie goers will not anticipate what would happen next. Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers is beyond excellence. She is the soul of the movie, what a beautiful soul to have?

It is rumored that Natalie Portman had trained for about a year and a half learning ballet. She looks like a professional and the sweet fruit of her hard work is evident. An Oscar thoroughly deserved. This movie is a chapter taken from the life of hitherto simple woman with a lot of shades, some decidedly hidden some she is unaware arousing her curiosity every now and then. This movie is like no other in making you feel the way Nina Sayers feels struggling every day to achieve the one thing dear to her and her confusing identities keep her from doing what she has to, that is cut loose. The movie ends in a moment of exhilaration, a moment of pure ecstasy that is seldom felt by conscious minds but she does get to the point where she wanted to be. It is indeed perfect!