Black Swan

I went and saw Black Swan over the weekend & back when the ladies went & saw "The Kids Are All Right" we saw a preview for it & the movie looked good but really freaking creepy so I wasn't sure I'd even be able to watch it.  Well my friend Leslie really wanted to see it but I was being a big puss & told her to check it out & report back on the scary factor & she said the movie was really good & other than a couple scenes where she covered her eyes it wasn't scary, she said it was just "some freaky shit".  Since Leslie knows me I knew I'd be able to see it & considering that the same guy who directed Requiem For a Dream directed this I figured it had to be good & moved it up to the top of my "I want to see this" list, so on Saturday we went & saw it (the theater was packed, we had to sit 2nd row & it's been out for weeks!) & here's what I thought about it.

The acting in this movie was excellent, the grittiness of this movie was very appealing especially in a time when everything is so overly 3-D & HD it was nice to see something that felt like a film.  The story of this movie however left a lot to be desired for me, it was kind of blah & I don't know if it's just because of the hype but I was pretty disappointed.  I heard that this movie was so intense & that the lesbian sex scene was so raw Natalie didn't let her parents watch it & also that the ending was so shocking I wouldn't see it coming.  Well let me tell you that aside from feeling physical pain while watching these dancers & their various physical & mental injuries it wasn't intense.  The lesbian sex scene was not raw at all (there wasn't a single bare tit or ass in the whole movie), in fact I didn't find it the least bit provocative & the ending...seriously, how could you not see it coming?

I expected to be titillated, shocked, scared, dumbfounded, turned on, effed up, all in all blown away by this movie & I wasn't & apparently I'm not the only one...the people sitting next to us left halfway through the movie.  Natalie Portman was very good, her acting was phenomenal & while a lot of people bitched to me about listening to her breathe/pant during the majority of the movie it was the one thing that kept me connected to her character.  Winona Ryder was very good as was Mila Kunis but I have to say that Barbara Hershey played the best supporting role, she was beyond crazy & I hate to say it but she looks like shit!  The work she has had done is obvious, so obvious that it makes her look older, Beaches my friends is a lifetime in the past apparently.

So, all in all the movie was good, I'd see it again but it wasn't great.  Requiem for a Dream was way better than Black Swan & it has the creepy, scary, effed up shit I was looking for so if you are looking for something similar to Requiem as well you are looking in the wrong place.  All in all I give this movie 2.5 olives out of 4, it was good but not great & maybe it's just because I went in with expectations that I felt so let down but some people must have thought it was really good or I wouldn't have had the expectations to begin with.  You should probably go see it just because of all of the critical acclaim but try to check your expectations at the door.