A funny thing happened on the way to the movies this Christmas Eve. First there were few people at the theater, but as I approached the young ticket guy and say, "Two for Black Swan". he looks at me weird and said, "This is an R rated movie and the manager says it is very graphic." I looked at him and he goes on, "I mean it is VERY graphic." and then he said, "This movie would appeal to teen age boys, if you know what I mean." I looked at my wife and told her that I had read several reviews and nothing like this was mentioned. I had tickets in hand and said to the boy, "Well, if it is to rough, we will leave and go in to see "Tron." He said, "I didn't hear that, but if you go in the the 3D version, get glasses out of the recycle bin. Black Swan is real graphic."
We went in to "Black Swan" not knowing what to expect. Actually, I was expecting an abundance of nudity, profanity, violence and sex. You know, VERY Graphic. I looked at my watch about an hour into the show. No nudity, Little profanity (one actor said the F-word twice for the rating. Once is just PG-13). To get this out of the way: There is one lesbian sex scene with no nudity but you know what was happening.
Now to the Movie: The movie is about a ballet troupe working, competing and performing "Swan Lake". It has some of the typical dance movie conflicts of two dancers that each want the starring role and the Director who drives them and the Stage Mom who interferes. But as Swan Lake portrays a pure girl who first becomes a white swan and then morphs into a evil black swan, so goes the movie. It is very Hitchcock!
Natalie Portman stars and stories I have read says she practiced dance for THREE YEARS to prepare for this. (Just like Mark Walberg in "The Fighter".) She is remarkable and the rest of the cast is great. It look me about 30 minutes after the show to have an AH Ha moment and say, "Oh I get it!"
This movie will convince you again that Ballet Dancers are great athletes.
I give this four stars. I didn't enjoy it like "True Grit" but I appreciated how it was crafted.
I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been expected it to go wild, crazy and VERY graphic! I still don't know what the ticket guy was thinking. I guess he was trying to save old people from being embarrassed.
2010 Movie # 59
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