OBS at the Movies

“THE BLACK SWAN”

Movie Review

By: Jazmen Darnell Brown

Directed By: Darren Aronofsky

Written By: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin

Starring:

Natalie Portman.....Nina Sayers

Mila Kunis....Lily

Vincent Cassel...Thomas Leroy

Barbara Hershey.....Erica Sayers

Winona Ryder.....Beth MacIntyre

A lot of people seem to enjoy the genre of movies I’ve termed “psycho sick” that expertly mix thriller moments and suspense with horror and gore. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. It took me two days to watch the last half-hour of “Requim For A Dream,” and I missed close to 35% of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” because of the dust irritating my contacts, or so I claimed. I expected much of the same when I attended a screening for “The Black Swan.” Friends had described it as twisted, intense, and a head-trip. I arrived with my bag of excuses, prepared to run out with bladder issues or an emergency phone call if the need arose. The need did arrive, but interesting enough, despite the moments of face stabbings and legs breaking, I couldn’t turn away. “The Black Swan” had done what many other “psycho sick” films failed to do. It held my attention.

In “The Black Swan,” Natalie Portman portrays Nina, a ballerina cast as lead in her company’s production of The Swan Princess.  Her impeccable technique makes her a nice fit as the precious White Swan. However, she doesn’t yet possess the dark sensuality demanded to pull off the character’s transformation into the Black Swan.  Her need/desire to put on the perfect performance and convince her ballet instructor (played by Vincent Cassell), and competitor (played by the hot-hot-hot, did I mention hot, Mila Kunis) leads her on a head-trip of epic proportions.

Again, it wasn’t the shock and thrills that captivated me.  It was finding myself lost in the scary world that was Nina’s mind.  Throughout 85% of the film, Nina is a soft-spoken, meek girl yearning to bring out the Black Swan inside her.  She tries so hard, and wants it so bad, but just can’t seem to find it. As a viewer, I grew tired and frustrated of meek Nina, wanting her to breakthrough almost as much as she did.

As the film progresses, her delusions take control making it harder to discern what is real and what is fake.  Some might argue this was a detriment to the film, causing viewers to take themselves out of the story in order to make sense of it.  I would bring up the counter-point that while audiences weren’t able to separate truth from fiction, neither was Nina.  We were essentially experiencing the same problems making us more emotionally invested in the outcome.

 As a writer, I took away the need to control your viewer’s emotional investment.  We know the character has an arc, but what about the audience?  What is their journey?  What is their perspective/feeling at the beginning of the film, and how does it differ from the end?  In creating a thriller, the author must keep in mind that the audience needs a catharsis and a satisfying resolution to the character's dilemma.  The character may end at either a more positive point or a lower point than where she began.  In any case, the tension must be released and the ending must be satisfying----not necessarily happy but consistent with the world of the story.  BLACK SWAN did this by making me desperate for Nina to get it, and blurring the lines between delusion and reality, for 108 minutes, I essentially was Nina.  I was that meek, desperate girl losing control and none of my bladder issues, phone call excuses, or moviegoer sensibilities was capable to stop it. 

Jazmen Darnell Brown is the son of a truck driver from the Midwest, moved to Los Angeles in the Fall of 2009 to learn the art and business of Hollywood. He is currently working toward optioning his first feature-length screenplay as well as producing for new media.