It started out with an interesting premise. Evolution from temporal
to cosmic. What it took to be a “white swan” was technical
perfection. Practiced experience in playing the stereotype of
political or social perfection. Not so much as a feather out of
place. But the only way for a “white swan” to morph into the “black
swan” alter ego is to abandon all the commodities the “white swan”
and leap into the existential void while maintaining the same
habitus.

Is it possible to put enough pressure on the “white swan” to
accomplish the transition by simply an authority figure demanding
it? Was it possible for perpetually angst ridden Natalie Portman to
morph from virginal purity to otherworldly “no limits” expansionist.
Maybe somewhere in the universe, but not in this film.

Portman is an otherwise excellent actress and she tried hard to pull
the transition off. but was ultimately unsuccessful She started out
on the brink of sanity anyway digging at her skin under the thumb of
an overbearing mother having given up a ballet career to raise a
daughter. Interminable pressure from the ballet director pushing
her on both a performance and personal level. The stage was
set………

But ultimately, Portman’s transition only ends in cosmic psychosis
and she carries the unwilling audience with her. Neither perceives
what’s real and what’s Memorex, ultimately confusing everyone.
Gratuitous female-female sex scenes succeed only in making the
audience squirm uncomfortably. In the end, the question of how a
white-black swan meld might be answered remains mired in a
hallucination that goes nowhere.

On exiting the theater, a patron was overheard to say: “God, I’m
going to need therapy”.

One of five pink Tutus. Not recommended by me
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