Okay, so I finally finished watching it, and...I think the thing that rings least true for me is that Nina seems to take so incredibly little joy in what she does. Yes, ballet dancers treat themselves badly, in a lot of ways, but no more or less than many other dancers/athletes. They understand that their window of opportunity is small and their bodies will break down, but the lure isn't just being tiny and girly and perfect--the lure is that they can literally do things no one else can do. And NIna is just...I mean, she's SO crazy, right from the beginning, and so utterly strained and weird and joyless, I don't really understand how she manages to keep her place in the company (which she's had for some time, if you believe her Mom). And the only reason I can see Tomas(?) promoting her like this is that his fragility fetish gets pinged--but OTOH, how can you organize an entire headline show around a girl who can barely make it to work in the morning? Maybe it's my being-around-the-theatre-all-my-life bullshit-o-meter, but I have trouble doing the "it's opera!" equation in my head, and it kept me from enjoying the film the way I wanted to.
That said, if people think Portman's performance is one-note, that ain't really her fault--one note is all Aronofsky gave her to play, and she did it well. Plus, here and there--when the Black Swan comes out--you can see other stuff. I just wish she had more time to enjoy her victory.
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Date: 2011-04-22 09:50 pm (UTC)Okay, so I finally finished watching it, and...I think the thing that rings least true for me is that Nina seems to take so incredibly little joy in what she does. Yes, ballet dancers treat themselves badly, in a lot of ways, but no more or less than many other dancers/athletes. They understand that their window of opportunity is small and their bodies will break down, but the lure isn't just being tiny and girly and perfect--the lure is that they can literally do things no one else can do. And NIna is just...I mean, she's SO crazy, right from the beginning, and so utterly strained and weird and joyless, I don't really understand how she manages to keep her place in the company (which she's had for some time, if you believe her Mom). And the only reason I can see Tomas(?) promoting her like this is that his fragility fetish gets pinged--but OTOH, how can you organize an entire headline show around a girl who can barely make it to work in the morning? Maybe it's my being-around-the-theatre-all-my-life bullshit-o-meter, but I have trouble doing the "it's opera!" equation in my head, and it kept me from enjoying the film the way I wanted to.
That said, if people think Portman's performance is one-note, that ain't really her fault--one note is all Aronofsky gave her to play, and she did it well. Plus, here and there--when the Black Swan comes out--you can see other stuff. I just wish she had more time to enjoy her victory.