Summer of Movies: Black Swan

I squashed myself into a crowded theatre to see an advance screening of a film that was already wildly circulating on the office intranet. Why? A pretty awesome trailer. And I wanted to see properly the film that is already the most talked about this award season.

Hit:

Beautiful – Just like the trailer, the film is dark, sexy and beautiful to watch.

Winonna – I got to see five great minutes with Winonna Ryder. More please. Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey also gave strong performances.

Mila Kunis – I was surprised by all the hype but Mila was very good in her role (Vanity fair described her as 'yummily caramel'). I would even say better than Natalie Portman. 

Ballet – First off I’m always skeptical of films based in a dance environment. Usually they are just an excuse to show people dancing, which filmakers seem to think audiences find interesting. We don’t. But here the dancing didn’t distract too much from the story.

Miss:

The story – Unfortunately this film turned out to be an 100 minute version of the trailer and not much else. It had some interesting insights into obsession but after you worked out what was going on it became predictable. With a better storyline, this could have been great.

Verdict:

Beautifully shot and well acted. Unfortunatley  I still like to see a good story when I go to the movies, not just Natalie Portman going nuts.   

6.5/10