Black Swan

Rated R for graphic sexuality, some tense violence

Starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Nina is an innocent yet very talented and dedicated ballet dancer, part of a New York City ballet troupe. It is announced that lead featured dancer Beth, who is quite older than the rest, will be retiring soon and that a new lead dancer will be picked to replace her as the Swan Queen in ballet conductor Thomas Leroy's new adaption of Swan Lake.

While saddened to see Beth go, Nina is eager at the shot of a lead featured role and auditions for the part. Thomas tells her that if he were only casting for The White Swan, the part would easily be Nina's, but he's looking for a dancer who can perform and embody both The White Swan and her evil, seductive twin The Black Swan, which he doesn't feel the innocent Nina can pull off. After forcing himself on her, Nina bites Thomas' tongue and he feels he's seen a sliver of The Black Swan in her and decides to cast her in the part, but in rehearsals he constantly berates her not being seductive enough or losing herself in the part enough. To add to matters, an equally talented feisty new dancer named Lily has just transferred to the troupe from San Fransisco and Nina fears Lily is out to get her role as Lily seems to be the opposite of innocent Nina - the Black Swan to her White Swan.

As Nina struggles to tap into the Black Swan of the role and the days of opening night approach, Nina begins to hallicunate and lose her sanity. Her overprotective and overbearing mother (whom we learn is a former ballerina who gave up her career when she got pregnant at 28 with Nina and is now living vicariously through her) worries about her so much that it only pushes Nina further into her madness. Soon the Black Swan persona begins to take over Nina - will she be able to fight it or will the dual role of nice vs. naughty get the best of her in the end?

Black Swan is an interesting look into the darkside of ballet and how striving too hard for perfection in a role can drive one mad. As one person put it, it's reminescint of what Heath Ledger might have gone through while getting into and emboding the role of The Joker for The Dark Knight - a role that he strived to perfect so much that it drove him over the edge and killed him in the end. Natalie Portman gives a stunning and believable performance though, as she worked hard physically to get into the role - for her role here, she deserves any award she's nominated for this award season.

While it's a bit of a psychological thriller and drama (we see Nina downward spiral and lose control of her sanity), it's definitely rated R for a reason as there's some pretty graphic sexual scenes in this film that are not appropriate for kids to see. I wouldn't say it's my favorite film of 2010, but it's definitely worth seeing!