Reviews Of…Well Take A Guess
Black Swan opens on Friday, so we’re going to have a new wave of reviews landing online. This is probably the last batch of reviews in which I post all that have been found/sent. From here on out I’m going to be a lot more discerning. Let’s face it, we get the gist by now anyway.
– Let’s start with a rave from Coming Soon.
As masterfully-crafted as “Black Swan” is, it’s still very much Natalie Portman’s performance as a ballerina pushed to the very edges of sanity that makes the film absolutely unforgettable.
– This He Said/She Said review from Lost In A Supermarket is a really fun read. Both reviewers loved the film, with Mundt saying that its the best film that he’s seen in years.
Certainly some actors like Scarlett Johansson or Angelina Jolie may be “sexier” than Portman, but none have her grace. And that’s what it takes to play this role: grace in movement, and grace in character. She plays the role of the White Swan to perfection — weak and fraught and painfully self-conscious — and her struggle to become more is what drives the film. Like I said about Aronofsky hitting his artistic stride, I feel like this is Portman hitting her stride — it’s her grand performance to date. Doesn’t it seem like we’ve all been waiting for her to realize her potential? She’s been good in almost everything (Star Wars excluded), but the films themselves haven’t been extraordinary. You knew she had some superstar performance in her in a film that truly mattered, and I think this is it.
