Black Swan: The Psychological Thriller that Does it All

I love psychological thrillers - absolutely love them. They either force you to confront something within yourself or give you a new viewpoint on what people go through. A movie that I believe does both (for most people) is the critically acclaimed, Black Swan, with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. 

The film follows Nina (Portman), a ballerina at New York City Ballet company. It’s a competitive, highly impressive, and cut-throat organization. Swan Lake is their next production, and they need someone to play both Swans. Nina is perfect for the White Swan role, she’s fragile, innocent, and graceful, but she can’t seem to tackle the rough, harsh Black Swan role.

A large part of the movie is Nina's struggle to accept failure. Because of this, she begins obsessively training - determined to master both Swans and be selected for the lead role. 

The movie progresses as Nina becomes consumed by trying to portray both Swans (the Black Swan trailer showcases this). Fueled by a fear of rejection, she hardly ever takes a break from her training. She begins to lose sleep, lose weight, and grow irritable. As her addiction progresses, her mind quite literally starts breaking down. Viewers watch as Nina crumbles under the immense pressure from her mother, the other ballerinas, the company, and herself - until it all culminates into a psychotic break on the night of the Swan Lake premiere. 

Black Swan’s portrayal of stress and overworking starts slowly in comparison to most movies, and I think it helps show the audience how realistic the consequences actually are. Nina wanted to be at the top and would do anything to get there, but in doing so, she lost everything. 

Her early motions can easily be seen in workaholics, or obsessive Type A people, which is why Black Swan forces viewers to confront something within themselves. Most people have experienced something that consumed their attention to the point of disregarding other needs, like skipping lunch to finish a project, or dedicating their free time to perfecting a skill instead of resting. A smaller group of the population has experienced this obsession but larger, and an even smaller group has experienced a breakdown caused by this type of obsession, which was Nina's ultimate fate.

Black Swan beautifully portrays how Nina's obsession easily grew from outside factors like her mother and her supervisor. She pushed herself too far, but what truly broke her was caused by the people around her, and the fact that she wasn't strong enough to protect herself. It displays the vulnerabilities in society and how someone with underlying trauma may handle a large life event differently than someone without.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in cinematography, psychology, psychotic breaks, human nature, parental influence, and ballet (the ballet scenes are beautiful).