Bravo Natalie Portman! Without you, this maddening movie would have devolved into nothing more than a Grade-B horror flick. As it was, movie-goers (not the Movie Slut, of course), were giggling in their seats at moments that were clearly meant to be sad and scary.
The story, which loosely follows the arc of ballet classic "Swan Lake," tells the story of a modern-day ballerina (Nina the ballerina — really!), who suffers the same fate as the tragic swan. Along the way, we're treated to every cliche about dancers. Nina is anorexic/bulimic. She's a cutter. She has no life beyond the barre. Her feat are all but destroyed. But her true achille's heel is her pathological perfectionism. Add to this a Mommy Fearist (Barbara Hershey), and Nina is doomed.
The movie follows her leap into madness, one hallucination and self-mutilation at a time. It's "The Nightmare at Lincoln Center."
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