I thought the trailer looked terrible, so I didn’t see it in theaters. Seeing Black Swan nominated for an Oscar only made me feel more confident my decision was correct, since the critics always seem to get it wrong (Traffic and more recently King’s Speech both got acclaim and were both awful). Tommy D bought the DVD and gave it multiple recommendations, so I finally gave in and watched it all the way through.

I think if Tommy wasn’t sitting next to me I would have bailed an hour in. The entire premise of the movie was simply to watch a ballerina’s (Natalie Portman) surreal mental breakdown. It was just too weird. Too creative. Too overdone. Too much!

It tried too hard to do something special with a very bland premise. At one point her arms turn into black wings to symbolize her embodiment of the character she plays in the ballet. At another point she imagines her knees snapping backward as she becomes the swan.

Black Swan is an abstract painting of a movie, and I don’t recommend it. I’ll leave it at that.

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