"Disturbing Swan Dive"
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What You Need To Know:
BLACK SWAN is an extremely unpleasant movie, packed with some of the most bizarrely unhinged and immoral behavior to be seen on the big screen in ages. Included are some graphic sexual content, explicit homosexuality and extreme violence. Many secular critics are lauding BLACK SWAN, but much of it will confuse and disturb mainstream viewers. BLACK SWAN is an abhorrent exercise without redemptive content.
Content:
(RoRoRo, PaPaPa, HoHoHo, LLL, VVV, SSS, NN, AA, DDD, MMM) Very strong Romantic, anything-goes pagan worldview, with very strong lewd homosexual content; at least 30 obscenities and profanities, including several uses of “GD”; very strong violence includes lead female cuts and scars herself on her back and fingers, stabs another female character with shards of mirror glass before it’s revealed she has actually stabbed herself fatally, tries to choke female rival, stabs another dancer through the cheeks with a nail file, vandalizes property in anger, and engages in numerous screaming fits toward her concerned mother, plus another suicide attempt; extremely graphic lesbian sex scene in which characters keep their bras on but it’s shown that one set of panties is torn off while not showing actual nudity, man tries to force a woman to have sexual relations with him though it stops after he kisses her and she bites him, man questions woman about her sex life in inappropriate detail, graphic though clothed female self-abuse scene, implied female self-abuse with nudity hidden while in a bathtub, characters kiss strangers in a bathroom, two women dance scandalously together before kissing; implied sexual nudity of females and upper male nudity of dancers in a couple of ballet scenes; frequent drinking scenes including two or three scenes of characters engaged in drunkenness; frequent smoking and a scene in which drugs are slipped into a drink and the after-effects of characters being high and reckless in their behavior, including sex; and, very strong miscellaneous immorality throughout, including lying and deception, revenge, and duplicitous behavior.
More Detail:
BLACK SWAN details the descent into madness of a ballerina named Nina (played by Natalie Portman). Nina lives with her overprotective and adoring, but suffocating, mother (played by Barbara Hershey), who alternately pushes Nina to gain the lead role of the Black Swan in a famed ballet while also constantly worrying about her.
When Nina fights back against the improper advances of her artistic director (Vincent Cassel), he decides to cast her in the lead role anyway because he likes her fiery spirit. At the same time, Nina discovers there is rampant jealousy and competitiveness from the other dancers. She sees departing ballet star Beth McIntyre attempt suicide and is uncertain whether to trust the intentions of a fellow dancer, Lily (played by Mila Kunis).
As Nina pushes herself over the edge with her fears, paranoia and obsessive preparation, the movie parades through an assortment of perverse and violent behavior, which may either be real or fabricated in Nina’s increasingly unhinged fantasies. [Spoiler Alert] Ultimately, after committing much mayhem, Nina dies at the end of the film, having stabbed herself during her opening night as the Black Swan, and dying after her character falls to her own fictional death.
BLACK SWAN is an extremely unpleasant movie, packed with some of the most bizarrely unhinged and immoral behavior to be seen on the big screen in ages. Included are some graphic sexual content, explicit lesbianism and extreme violence.
On a production level, the performances are outstanding, especially those by Kunis and Portman. Portman, however, goes ludicrously over-the-top in the final half hour. While trying to show that the quest for artistic perfection can be destructive, the movie ultimately goes too far on every level, nearly turning into a horror film in its final stretches.
Overall, this is a movie secular critics are mostly championing, but mainstream audiences will be confused and disturbed by much of it. BLACK SWAN ultimately is an abhorrent exercise without redemptive content.