Black Swan

Black Swan
MPAA: Rated R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use.
Catholic News Service Media Review Office: O (morally objectionable)

In my quest to catch as many movies that will be getting Oscar nominations as I can I took time out of my R&R and saw "Black Swan."  Normally going to the movies is a part of taking a break, but this time it was work.  This is not a film that I would usually go and see.  Of the roughly twenty people at the midweek matinee I attended, I was one of three men.  It looked like the others were brought by their significant others, so I'm guessing that I'm the only man who went of his own accord.  But what made this movie work for me wasn't that it's a film that appeals to women more than men, but in the morally confused compass that guides it.

From the beginning it's clear that Nina (Natalie Portman), an up and coming ballerina, is a basket case.  She's living claustrophobically at home with her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey, reminding me ever so slightly of Piper Laurie in "Carrie"), she has a history of self mutilation, is repressed, passive, and lacks any self confidence (which makes me wonder how she got as far as she did in such a competitive field). Her director (Vincent Cassel) acknowledges her technical prowess, which makes her perfect to play the "White Swan" in Swan Lake but complains she doesn't have the passion to play the seductive "Black Swan."  But she unwittingly changes the director's mind by rebuffing his romantic advances with a well placed bite, revealing the fire just below the surface. 

But in winning the role she so covets poor Nina's problems only get worse.  She has competition from a sultry newcomer (Mila Kunis), who may not have Nina's skills but possesses the passion that makes her perfect for the Black Swan. She feels guilt over replacing the company's aging and self destructive star (Winona Ryder, in a bit of art imitating life).  She also descends into what can only be described as paranoid schizophrenia, at the very time she takes the director's advise to free herself through sexual experimentation.  She sees people who aren't there, her mother's paintings take on lives of their own, and the viewer begins doubting what is real and what is a product of Nina's increasingly deteriorating mind. 

A point the movie seems to be making is that true freedom and self actualization comes from the elimination of inhibitions and indulging in unfettered sensual pleasures.  Obviously, I don't agree with that, but the movie itself seems to under mind its own point, with Nina's increasing self actualization being accompanied by increasing levels of insanity.  After all the barriers are knocked down Nina indeed dances the ballet of her life, but at quite a cost.

In one of the literature courses I took in college the main character of a book we were reading had a transformation from a shy milquetoast to a rather bold assertive fellow after his first sexual encounter.  The professor explained that the author was trying to say that we don't become fully human until we engage in sexual activity, an opinion she concurred with.  My initial thought was:  Mother Teresa, John Paul II, Therese of Lisieux, John Bosco, oh yeah, they never really actualized themselves as human beings, did they?  "Black Swan" makes the same mistake my professor did all those years ago.  Being human is more complex than we understand, and while our sexuality is an important part of what makes us who we are, the contemporary mind has exaggerated its place a bit.  The people I mentioned above had great passion, and lived their human lives to the fullest even though all were life long celibates.  They found themselves by giving themselves to others in selfless acts of love.  Mother Teresa's writings reveal a woman of tremendous passion, but it was not focused inwardly.  It was pointed out to the world in the service of others.  Any other path leads to self absorption, and possibly self destruction.

To be fair Nina's transformation involves more than just a sexual awakening, and it is important to learn how to get up on your own two feet and stand up for your self.  But the movie, always dealing in extremes, has Nina embrace a total will to power.  Her coming of age is won after a totally unapologetic pursuit of her goals that tolerates no rivals.  She becomes completely focused on what she wants and is even willing to kill for it.  In the end I'm guessing the film makers want us to see Nina as a heroine.  I couldn't help but see her as a tragic one, destroyed by the very journey of discovery and self realization that was supposed to save her.

I would be amiss if I didn't mention the "strong sexual content" that the MPAA alerts viewers to.  I'm going to save a fuller exploration of sex in movies for a later post, but for now I'll say it is pretty strong stuff.  Nudity is avoided, but not much else is left to the imagination.  It strikes me that if the material is strong, you don't have to resort to explicit content.  While I don't agree with the world view the film puts forward (if it even has one), the material is strong enough, the performances good enough, that they didn't have to resort to shock.  But as I wrote, more on that later.