Black Swan

Bold, unsettling, beautiful and disturbing, Darren Aronofsky's “Black Swan” leaves you stunned, beaten and breathless.

The film, a disorienting descent into the depths of hell, gets under your skin and refuses to leave. It's an exhilarating roller coaster ride, a dark character study, a feverish psychological thriller, all of them as engrossing as they are repellent. It reminds us of the enormous impact movies can have, their power to shock, delight, disturb and challenge. And the film also leaves you clinging to dear life, you're challenged to keep watching even as you want to turn away.

The film stars Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, an obsessive, tightly-wound ballerina whose vying for the lead role in her company's latest rendition of “Swan Lake.”

The company's director, Thomas (Vincent Cassel) believes Nina to be perfect for the role of the white swan queen, her innocence and fragility perfectly suiting the tragic heroine. However, in Thomas' rendition of the much-celebrated ballet, the white and black swan queens are going to be performed by the same ballerina.

Nina's sexual repression and timidity are completely wrong for the part of the black swan queen, whose self-realized sexuality is far outside of Nina's comfort zone. Nina trains obsessively for the role, but her opportunity is also threatened by a sensual newcomer, Lily (Mila Kunis) whose unashamed sexuality would make her perfect for the role of the black swan queen. Nina, already coming undone by the pressures of her training, begins having gruesome visions, and her rivalry with Lily takes dark and unexpected turns.

There's so much happening in “Black Swan,” it would be impossible to get into all of it in one review. The film is about many things: repression, obsession and narcissism are just a few among many. It's not always subtle about its symbolism either; Aronofsky, who also directed the critically praised “The Wrestler,” takes his vision to the extreme.

Portman gives the best performance of her career and delves into a deeper and darker side of herself I didn't know she had. She captures Nina's repression and timidity with astonishing ease but she goes further, finding a kind of ugly obsession in Nina that's utterly devastating. This is the kind of transformation Oscar nominations were made for.

Kunis is slinky and sexy as Lily, and she gets some of the movie's most acidly humorous lines. Barbara Hershey also appears as Nina's domineering mother, but her character is given little complexity and Hershey becomes the monster looming in the back of the frame.

The score and cinematography are beautiful. Some of the visuals are stunning, including a scene in a nightclub in which pulsing strobe lights leave the viewer feeling dizzy with sensory overload.

By the time “Black Swan” revs up to its screeching finale, Aronofsky has taken his movie into such tricky, complicated territory, you have to give him credit for having so much confidence in his work. His confidence makes “Black Swan” an engrossing and unnerving thrill ride every step of the way.