BLACK SWAN ----- A PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA

 

The Black Swan is built around the psychological illness of its protagonist, Nina Sayers, beautifully and disturbingly portrayed by Natalie Portman. Nina’s relationship with her  mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, sets the stage for Nina’s psychological breakdown . One scene particularly captures this dysfunctional relationship – Erica offers Nina the first piece of a cake she bought to celebrate Nina getting the lead and Nina refuses it. Her mother than takes the entire cake and threatens to throw it in the garbage. 

Throughout the movie Nina “discovers” scratches and bleeding on her body seemingly derived from self-injury. However, it is difficult to tell which injuries are real and which are not throughout the film. As the stress and anxiety increase, Nina begins having psychotic breaks. She suffers visual hallucinations related to bodily injury and metamorphosis of her own and other people’s figures. The line between reality and hallucination begins to blur as the movie progresses, culminating in a shocking ending relating to her embracing the Black Swan persona.

 The Black Swan is a deep and compelling story with outstanding acting and cinematography.  The intertwining of this psychodrama with the story of Swan Lake can only be described as brilliant.