Film making

Black Swan was one of the most powerful films of 2011. Starring Natalie Portman (who won the Academy Award for Best Actress), Mila Kunis (nominated for a Golden Globe) and Vincent Cassel, the unexpected picture takes you much farther into the twisted mind of Nina Sayers (Portman) in her pursuit to be the head ballerina in her ballet firm's production of Swan Lake.

The tale of the ballet Swan Lake is as follows: the pure and perfect White Swan (Odette) falls crazy about a prince, but makes a contract with a sorcerer who turns her into a swan. Her prince falls in love with the Black Swan (Odile, Odette's evil twin who represents sexuality and sin), and Odette kills herself.

The flick follows Nina's descent into craziness as she transforms from the White Swan, Princess Odette, to the Black Swan, Odile. Nina struggles between finding the balance between perfection and passion. Her ballet teacher Thomas Leroy (Cassel) makes an attempt to help her find the balance to be the ideal dancer in his production of Black Swan to save the dance company after he replaces Beth MacIntire (Winona Ryder) with Nina. He tempts her and pushes her over the edge. Kunis plays Lily, Nina's dance rival, who channels more Odile than Odette and brings out the Black Swan in Nina.

The end of the movie is predictable, but the whole unscrambling of the plot makes you want to see the flick more than once. It is tough to distinguish between reality and what is going on in Nina's psyche. The sole person that knows the truth is her mother, who fears for Nina's life as she descends into insanity. There are scenes of self-mutilation where Nina scratches or injures herself, and she becomes very more cruel to herself as she becomes more like the Black Swan. In the final analysis the role of the Black Swan destroys Nina. The way that the plot untangles is definitely something worth seeing.

Portman won many awards including a SAG Award, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award for her role. The film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture for many enormous awards, and Darren Aronofsky also was nominated for Best Director. Apart from all of the critic praise, Black Swan is an amazing movie that should definitely be seen. Portman trained for many years to get to be in dancer shape, as did Kunis. It was nice to see Kunis out of her standard role (as the carefree distraction circa Forgetting Sarah Marshall). The casting was great, and it complimented an excellent story with great direction.