Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as an uptight ballerina who’s recently, finally been cast as the Swan Queen — just in time for a more “sensual,†similar-looking rival (Mila Kunis) to show up and try to edge her out of the part. The two play nice, and then less nice, as Portman gets more anxious and unhinged. Kunis starts showing up at her apartment, and then, you know, making out with her. It all seems like a very trippy, very artistic, psychologically rich Single White Female, with a bit of Mommie Dearest tossed in (Barbara Hershey plays Portman’s overbearing mother, the kind who still cuts her daughter’s fingernails), up until the last shot when it turns out … Portman’s growing wings! So, as we would expect of a movie from the director of The Fountain, we aren’t quite sure what’s going on here — is Kunis a figment of Portman’s imagination? Is any of this really happening? — which is a nice change of pace! We are sure that you will have difficulties unseeing the last shot, of Portman plucking a surfacing, spiked, painful feather out of her shoulder blade. Ouch.
