On first glance at the trailer for this feature you wouldn’t have been blamed for guessing that this movie was for the artsy people and couples. A Bieberesque story about never giving up and achieving your dreams. If you had gone here expecting to be mildly interested in modern ballets best.. well let us just say that you would have been shocked.

The basic plotline is that Nina (Natalie Portman) is a troubled ballerina and is selected for the high pressure lead in New York’s best ballet theatres production of Swan Lake. While this is the main plotline on the surface, the deeper theme is the human drive for perfection in every facet of life. To prove this point the director decided to use the people who let the drive for perfection destroy them: people who abuse their relationship food. That is to say people who have Bulimia, Anorexia Nervosa and Bigorexia. Natalie Portman is truly masterful at portraying these broken queens. I don’t know if you know anyone with Anorexia but the main thing you feel from them is an amazing vase that has shattered, or an old peacock huddled with age and moulted feathers but still struts in a memoir to a better time. That is exactly the feel you get from Ms Portman while you watch the movie.

Another theme running through the film is Nina coming of age and discovering her sexual identity. She obviously had a troubled adolescents and never was given the time to fully spread her wings and experiment sexually. We see her question whether she is homosexual or heterosexual and also experiment with herself.

This is a very good movie but the only downside is that the plot can be hard to follow at times because it can be hard to tell between Nina’s hallucinations and real life. As a positive or negative depending on your viewpoint, the ending is extremely dark. I wouldn’t advise this movie for young kids due to the fact that it is very dark. Overall an excellent movie though.