Darkmatters Review: Black Swan

Black Swan (15)

Dir. Darren Aronofsky

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

“I had the craziest dream last night about a girl who has turned into a swan, but her prince falls for the wrong girl and she kills herself…”

Black Swan is an enthralling dark psychological drama based around the story of Swan Lake where talented ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman) becomes so completely consumed with her role of the Swan Queen that she loses her mind and her grip on reality.

Highly tipped for Oscar glory Black Swan sees director Darren ‘The Wrestler’ Aronofsky dive head first into a maelstrom of maternal obsessiveness, freaky body horror and eye wateringly impressive ballet scenes. Portman is exquisite in the challenging lead role – her year of real life ballet training being put to good use alongside her considerable acting skills.

The plot may be a phantasmagorical case study of someone breaking down but it is utterly watchable thanks to having a director with such artistic verve, empowered by an incredible cast. Vincent Cassel takes the male lead as the director of the ballet company putting on a new ‘edgy’ version of Swan Lake. Barbara Hershey is Nina’s seriously overbearing mother while sexy new dancer Lily is a scene stealing Mila Kunis.

"oooh - the Black Swan..."

Quality support is also on hand thanks to Winona Ryder - completely chewing up the scenery as the company’s former prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre – who is replaced in the lead by Nina.

Black Swan isn’t an easy film to watch there are strong violent and sexual scenes which shocked some of the audience I caught this with. And while not fully a horror film, there are some good ‘jump’ moments too which had many people screaming out loud (mentioning no names *cough Matt Landsman *cough).

So viewers certainly shouldn’t go expecting a ‘nice’ ballet film, but anyone who has seen The Wrestler – to which Black Swan is a kind of alternate companion piece – will know to expect a visceral, brutal experience.

Nina’s inner turmoil is caused by her having to depict both the innocent ‘White Swan’ and the sensual Black Swan – who is much more akin to the overtly sexual Lily. The rivalry / uneasy friendship between the two is instrumental in awakening Nina’s dark side – but can she stay sane under the pressure?

With Black Swan, Aronofsky has created a compellingly powerful film without having to resort 3D or over-burdening watchers with hours of unnecessary padding. He is building up a fantastic body of work and anyone who enjoys Black Swan should certainly seek out his earlier masterpieces Requiem for a Dream and ‘Pi’.

Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööööö

(5 mind bending ballet shocks)...

Awesomeness ööööö – seriously impressive

Laughs ö – not a laugh riot

Horror ööö – you might jump, you will wince

Babes öööö – Portman is hot, Kunis is smokin

Spiritual Enlightenment ööö – don't go 'full swan'

- - -


Second opinion - try Pop Culture Monster

"Kunis - swanning about"

Darkmatters Review: Brothers

Brothers (15)

Dir. Jim Sheridan

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

War destroys humanity, it changes people and creates victims on both sides - many seen but lots of others hidden. Brothers might be a remake of the 2004 Danish film ‘Brødre’ but it is still very timely given the multiple fronts being fought in the ‘war on terror’.

Marine captain Sam (Toby ‘Spiderman’ Maguire) has a beautiful wife, Grace (Natalie Portman) and two smashing young daughters (excellent performances from Bailee Madison, Taylor Geare). But Sam is a dedicated soldier who loves nothing better than to be with his men in Afghanistan that he says ‘feels like home’.

You just know that things are going to go bad in Sam’s fourth tour of duty and before you can say “wouldn’t it be awful if he got shot down and presumed dead” his family is being informed that he's dead after his helicopter is shot down over enemy ground. Sam however isn’t dead, he and a fellow soldier are being held prisoner by the Taliban who force them over the edge with their evil torture techniques.

In the midst of this trauma Sam’s criminal brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) freshly out of the slammer comes to be a the shoulder that Grace cries on having to deal with the loss of her husband. The fall out of Sam’s ‘death’ leaves deep scars on the family but brings some redemption for Tommy in the eyes of his ex military father Hank (Sam Shepard),

This is highly charged emotional material which is developed slowly allowing the characters to be fleshed out before throwing in the incendiary grenade twist of Sam being rescued and returning home. Things disintegrate into a spiral of post-traumatic stress disorder induced jealousy and tension which threatens to destroy the family. Sam just isn’t the same person he was when he left.

All the actors go about this with the sort of gusto that you only tend to find in the run up to awards season. The performances from child actors are amazing - exuding a powerful mix of joy mixed with anxiety as they struggle to accept their dad back in his fragile, twitchy and haunted post war state.

Brothers is a compelling watch, but don’t go expecting it all nicely tied up by the end – director Sheridan has enough respect for the harsh subject matter not to proffer a twee solution to such a harsh reality.

UNSEEN DELETED SCENE:

Sam gets bitten by a radioactive spider, develops superpowers and goes straight back to Afghanistan - and defeats the Taliban single handedly... whilst Grace and Tommy get together whilst he's away...


Darkmatters rating: ööööööö (7 psycho soldiers out of 10)

Darkmatters quick reference guide: Action 6 / Style 7 / Babes 8 / Comedy 6 / Horror 8 / Spiritual Enlightenment 4

"Natalie Portman goes for the 'soft soap' approach in Brothers"