BLACK SWAN

Pepe's View:

If you believed the hype about this movie, then you would believe it is one of the masterpieces of modern cinema such is the power and effectiveness of the US movie industry publicity machine.  Did you know that a US movie spends almost twice as much on publicity as a European movie spends in total?  There is no way this movie lives up to its hype.  An overblown, melodramatic, pretentious load of rubbish.  Director Darren Aronofsky has dragged out every trick in the book - extreme close ups, hand held camera, sumptuous sets and interminable mirror shots - to try to make this movie seem important.
Using the musical score of Swan Lake and borrowing plot lines from the original to pretentiously mirror the life of the ballet's star played by Natalie Portman.  She ran the gamut of emotions from A - B to borrow an old phrase. She began the movie obviously paranoid and slightly crazy, and continued to become even crazier and more paranoid throughout the movie.
There is no way she deserved Oscar nomination at all for this performance.
The music was intrusive and far too obvious throughout.
To top this rubbish off - it went on for what seemed like days.  Why do directors think that if I keep people in the theatre for long enough they will feel they got their money's worth?

I am afraid there is not much to recommend this film other than perhaps the costumes and set.

My Score:  5/10

Ma's View:

I wholeheartedly agree!  And as for the black versus white colour theme!  Not subtle at all.  I'm sure most  real-life ballerinas would not find much to be impressed with in this movie - petty infighting and bickering, lack of professionalism and a lead ballerina who is clearly mentally unstable and would never have been chosen for the role because of this.  I wanted her to kill her mother; it would have been more suitable that the ending but not so melodramtic.  A movie clearly made to be a blockbuster and with the Oscars in mind.

My score:  4/10