Words by Rebecca Sunshine

“I had the craziest dream last night about a girl, who was turned into a swan, but her prince falls for the
wrong girl … and she kills herself.” –Natalie Portman as Nina

And I had the craziest dream last night that I was Mila Kunis with a giant black swan tattoo on my back
eating out Natalie Portman for what seemed like eternity; if only I were so lucky.

Darren Aronofsky left me hot and bothered with his new psychological thriller BLACK SWAN. The movie
and trailer are faded into action with the quote written above which is dictated by Natalie Portman.
From the opening scene through the end of the movie, it becomes each person’s individual opinion as to
whether or not the entire production is a dream or a clear premonition of the crazy transformation that
Nina (Natalie Portman) is faced with.

The script, about a prim and proper ballerina determined to earn the role as the lead swan in SWAN
LAKE whom canoodles with the dance teacher to get it, is more or less unoriginal; however, throw in a
lesbian sex scene, a creepy dance- mom, an overtly sexual dance teacher and a black swan and it begins
to make way for the disturbing production that Aronofsky first introduced to audiences at the Venice
Film Festival.

Nina is a pure, talented ballet dancer (white swan) who becomes a sly and tarnished soul (black swan)
after feeling threatened by the new ballet dancer, Lily, from San Francisco (Mila Kunis). She knows that
if she is to hold down her spot as the star role, she must apply a deadly persistence.

The dual personalities that make up the characters of Nina and her mother (Barbara Hershey) are
signature of Arronofsky’s direction. Nina’s mother frighteningly resembles the refrigerator-obsessed-
diet-pill-obsessed mother in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM; always a glossy blank stare and smirk of estranged
satisfaction. Throughout the movie the mother refuses to let go of her daughter’s youth and manages
to get away with sleeping on the love chair by her twenty-something daughter’s bed every night;
frankly, this becomes a problem when Nina cuts her masturbation session short after the surprising
presence of her mother catching Z’s right beside her- the fastest I’ve ever gone from turned on to
completely nauseous.

The cutting-edge cinematography and captivating special effects will cause audiences to jump, cringe,
cry and want to touch themselves. And with pristine performances by Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis,
Winona Rider (yes, she’s in the movie), and Barbara Hershey, no audience member will leave unsatisfied
and unbothered.