Black Swan
(Starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder)
What a fantastic, over-the-top melodrama!
The saying goes that to be the greatest—and in America, we must be the best—we have to become obsessed. Certainly, this is truer with the physical arts like ballet. The act of training changes the bones in dancers’ feet and inspires anorexia. At the center of Black Swan is a phenomenally psychopathic performance by Natalie Portman as a ballerina absolutely fixated on becoming the lead in Swan Lake. The camera never leaves her vicinity. We see what she sees; we experience her dangerous fixation and her tenuous grip on reality.
Choreographer Cassel tells Portman she can dance the innocent and perfect white swan, but she’s missing the passion and danger of the black swan. Is she going to lose the role to voluptuous upstart Kunis? Or will Portman go barking mad like tossed-aside ballerina Ryder? All she can do is run home to creepy mommy Hershey, who she still lives with, even though Portman is nearing 30.
Writer/director Darren Aronovsky always presents obsession and addiction (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler). Here, he gives himself no limitations. Through the abundance of mirrors, the music swells, Portman swoons, and the camera plays trick on our eyes. Because this is high-tragic ballet, it just has to be far-fetched! People will argue about the ending; but really, with the crazed whirling dervish Portman at the center, how else could this end?
True Grit
(Starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Bolin)
For so many years—including 1969, the year of the first film version—Westerns were the idealization of wide-open ranges and epic, generous souls. The truth is that the American West was a lonely, violent place that required perseverance. True Grit is not an old-time, cozy western. It follows the stylistic vein of Unforgiven, leaving fanciful heroism to captivate us by rough-hewn characters surviving by sheer willpower in an ugly, desolate world.
Sure, you’ll see the same bounty hunter Rooster Cogburn famously portrayed by John Wayne, but Bridges’ version is dirtier, drunker and more morally challenged. You’ll also witness the resolute 14-year-old girl Mattie (Steinfeld) out to hire Cogburn to avenge her father’s death. But this is where the film shines; the real hero—the personality with the monumental fortitude—is the smart-talking, dourly obsessed teenager.
True Grit is based on the 1968 book by Charles Portis, who has a gift with unusual, stilted dialogue, flinging terms like “brush farmers” in with big words like “braggadocio.” This adaptation hones closer to this heightened language, which lends the movie a unique voice.
The Coen brothers (who also made Fargo and No Country for Old Men) lead their actors to deliver brilliant performances. Their dark comedy and rich cinematography are still present. This time, however, the Coens abandon their typical filmic gimmicks for a riveting story narrated by a scarily unwavering young woman.
The Fighter
(Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams)
Christian Bale: In this boxing biography packing powerhouse performances, he takes the title. Bale portrays real-life Dicky Ward, one-time boxer and crack-addicted older brother to champion Micky Ward. Bale’s performance is a one-two combo of dysfunction and weasel-like selfishness; Dicky is thin and sickly but also gruesomely fascinating, goofy and even charming.
Dicky and Micky Ward (Wahlberg) are the sons of Alice Ward (the shining Leo), a brassy Massachusetts loudmouth with a gaggle of grown children from countless husbands. History shows that mom and brother Bale managed Micky’s faltering boxing career, effectively ignoring their ineptitude and addiction until an HBO documentary and a prison sentence convinced Dicky that he had problems. In this film version, Micky and new girlfriend Adams knows he has no chance unless he gets away from his low-end, violent family. Yet the boxer also knows his heart would break without Mom, Bro and his seven trashy sisters in his corner.
The general plot of this biopic isn’t surprising, but the specifics are. This Jerry Springer-type family is mined for embarrassing but honest humor. Director David O. Russell (Three Kings) is nobly utilitarian, effectively stepping out of the way of the acting. Leo and Adams are forces to be reckoned with. Against them, Wahlberg’s quiet turn almost gets lost, even though rumor is that he fought for four years to make this movie. Then there is Bale in a victory lap that should end as Best Supporting Actor on the Oscar stage.
