In Darren Aronofsky's dark psychological drama Black Swan, Natalie Portman is so fragile in the early scenes she seems on the verge of breaking. The camera follows her close -- the crane of her neck, the sway of her arms, the arch of her feet as she rises en pointe. And when she speaks, the voice is childlike, floating barely above a whisper. She does a lot of her acting in the earliest scenes with her body, so terribly thin, worked mercilessly for her art -- the actor for the demands of a script, for the stage she commands. And as the film careens to its breathtaking finish, the actress transforms into something darker, something fully visceral and sexual and magnificent. "Perfect," is what Portman's Nina says at the close.
Believe the hype: Black Swan and Natalie Portman are as good as they say. She, perhaps, better than she's ever been. Her performance here surpasses her Oscar-nominated work in 2004's Closer.
Portman competes with Annette Benning (The Kids Are All Right), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone), and Hilary Swank (Conviction) for the lead actress Screen Actor's Guild award. So far, I've seen the three who've gotten the most buzz this award season, Portman, Benning and Lawrence. Without a doubt, the Actor, and by extension, the Oscar, should go to Portman. And though I enjoyed Inception, True Grit, The Kids Are All Right and Social Network, the film that kept me on the edge from the opening was Black Swan, which is, so far, my favorite film this season.
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