I finally saw "Black Swan" yesterday, a day after Natalie Portman won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and revealed to the world her goofy laugh and the fact that her husband-to-be really does want to f*ck her - hence the maternity gown. (One thing I like about Portman is that she is kind of a geek, which I think is pretty cool.)
The thing is, I've never been a huge fan of hers. I've seen her on film and I've seen her on stage, and I never really connected with her emotionally. Which is why a) her role in "Black Swan" is so perfect for her, and b) Natalie Portman's acting - and believe me, I never thought I'd say this - made a movie more enjoyable for me than it would've been without her.
Portman plays Nina, a ballerina in a New York company who's so driven to succeed that she's focused her entire life on dancing to the exclusion of experiences or relationships with anyone other than her all-kinds-of-up-in-her-shit mother. As with any great story, what the protagonist thinks she has to do to reach her goal is the very thing holding her back. In Nina's case, her self-imposed asceticism has left her woefully unprepared to play what she thinks of as the role of a lifetime: the Swan Queen in "Swan Lake." Nina nails Odette, the virginal White Swan, but struggles to play Odile, her sensual and seductive evil twin - the Black Swan. The pressure gets to her... seriously.
Every time the company director (Vincent Cassel, who's sex on a stick) told Nina that he worries she's too cold and detached for the Black Swan, I had flashbacks to the seemingly endless conversations I've had over the years (mostly with dudes) about why Natalie Portman never seemed believable to me. I always thought she was - well, cold and detached. She never showed me anything that wasn't on the page. But in "Black Swan," I believed her.
It isn't easy for an actor to play a character as passive and fragile as Nina. Any actor can scream and cry, but those quiet moments are tricky. I thought Portman nailed Nina's repressed inner life without resorting to those twitchy actor tics that I hate. A day later, the moment that I remember best is a scene where Nina's mysterious fellow dancer (Mila Kunis - also sex on a stick) finally gets her to go out for drinks, and two guys attempt to pick them up. They are politely interested in the women's jobs, probably thinking about how flexible they are, and Nina (bless her heart) starts talking to them about how cool ballet is. You can tell that she's torn between wanting to talk about the Bolshois and instinctively knowing that it's probably not the best bar-talk. And I flashed back to every party I went to in college.
It wasn't on the page, but I saw it. And that's why Portman will earn every award she's going to get for this movie.
But still, in the back of my mind, I was wondering - how much of Nina's mechanical style was Portman, and how much a deliberate character choice? The last 15 or so minutes of the movie removed all my doubt. Frankly, she scared the shit out of me. I haven't wanted to run out of a movie theatre so bad since "Saving Private Ryan."
As for the movie itself? Good, but I could've waited for it to come out on DVD. The cinematography is amazing, especially during the dance scenes. It's more on the literal side than I prefer - oh, look! Everything in this room is black and white! It's almost as if there's some duality going on here! - and I was expecting the ending to be more catastrophic, given the build-up...
***HERE BE SPOILERS*** *** HERE BE SPOILERS***
... like, she actually kills somebody instead of just fantasizing about it. (Although I'm still not sure about Winona...)
***END SPOILERS***
... But I did enjoy the movie. The acting was wonderful. I love Barbara Hershey, and she's great as Nina's boundary issues-having mother. And I say again, Portman was the best I've ever seen her. I really hope this is a breakthrough for her and she can loosen the hell up from now on. (Her next movie looks promising.) 'Cause I really want to like her, I do.
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