est. 1983 and again in 1984

it was unexpected. It was good. The cinematography (Matthew Libatique) was beautifully intrusive and the score (Clint Mansell) was gravely haunting. I’m a fan of Vincent Cassel (played Thomas Leroy). He reminds me of one of the old greats and will definitely have a long-standing career. He is seductive and captivating at every moment he is on screen. Mila Kunis (played Lily) did a great job as well. I’ve never seen her extend past the the comedy circuit so it was good to see her expand herself into this thriller-genre. Natalie Portman (played Nina Sayers) did well but I didn’t feel like she pushed to her absolute limits. Portman will most likely get nominated for this role solely due to the fact that it’s a Darren Aronofsky film. Aronofsky did a pretty fantastic job of sewing together a pretty complex group of characters with a deeply psychological story (written by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz). As per his M.O, Aronofsky makes the audience feel uncomfortable and quite paranoid the entire time. Immediately I was intrigued by the mother-daughter relationship between Nina Sayers and her mother Erica (played by Barbara Hershey). We open to a very princess-like bedroom, belonging to Portman’s character and Hershey’s character helping her daughter as if she cannot take care of herself. Between Nina constantly calling her mother “mommy” and the various instances of her trying to appease her mother and not being able to make her own decisions, I knew that this relationship was the thread that would unravel Natalie’s character in the end. At the very moment we saw the dolls and various pink frills of Nina’s room, Ashley turns to me and says, “This room will be destroyed.” She was right. But not only was the room physically destroyed but so were the many walls that were built inside this character. I loved the various places the character was taken, from first-time experiences with drug use and masturbation to garnering the lead role in “Swan Lake” and the pressures that come along with not only such a heavy responsibility but also realizing a dream goal finally met. I usually like anything to do with the human psyche and how it’s power can affect the way a character acts, thinks and feels. This film definitely was loaded with so much of this kind of drama that it made me feel anxious and on edge the entire time. I found that I related to Nina’s slow downward spiral and then being disturbed that I related to any of it at all.
I’m not sure what the message of the film was or if there was even supposed to be one at all but the end scene was quite commanding especially with the climax of Nina’s ever-obsession with perfection.