Movie Review: Black Swan

Image by paladinsf via Flickr

**Possible spoilers, but I’d never give away the ending!**

This movie was stunning, both visually and in terms of plot.  For those who haven’t seen it yet, it is the story of Nina Sayers, a young ballet dancer played exceedingly well by Natalie Portman.  She is a dancer in New York, living at home with her former ballet dancer mother who lives vicariously through Nina.  Nina’s whole life is ballet.  She has no outside interests or friends, and does nothing but dance and practice dancing.  She finally has the chance to play the swan queen and the black swan in Swan Lake, and wins the roll.  She is criticized by the director for not being able to convincingly dance the part of the Black Swan, who is darker and more sensuous.  Nina easily dances the innocent, naïve White Swan, but he wonders if she has it in her to dance both rolls.

To add to Nina’s stress, there is a new dancer in the company.  Lily, played by Mila Kunis, is everything that Nina isn’t and seems perfect for the Black Swan.  Since both roles are played by the same dancer, Nina becomes obsessed with the idea that Lily might be her replacement.

Through many emotionally and psychologically stressful scenes, we watch Nina fight a losing battle for her own sanity as she tries to play both roles successfully.

The cast in the movie is phenomenal.  Barbara Hershey, as Nina’s mother, is the stage mother who pushes her daughter to be the best.  She is living out her dreams through her daughter, but also seems to resent the fact that Nina has progressed further in her career than she was able to.  In more than one scene she is shown doing things that make me think she is subconsciously trying to sabotage Nina’s career, although she really believes she is trying to do her best for Nina.

Natalie Portman is the picture of a ballerina.  She dances convincingly, and is reported to have done 80% of her own dancing throughout the movie, with only small use of dance doubles.  Mila Kunis is sexy and steamy as wild girl Lily.  Vincent Cassel, mostly known in America for his role in Ocean’s Thirteen, is appropriately lascivious as the handsome director with a reputation for sleeping with his performers.

This movie was both brilliant and disturbing.  It becomes increasingly difficult for both Nina and the audience to tell the difference between what’s imagined and what’s real.  I can recommend it for anyone looking for a great psychological thriller.  Enjoying ballet is not necessary.

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Book and Movie Review: Shutter Island

Cover of Shutter Island: A Novel

I watched “Shutter Island,” the movie, long before I had heard about the book.  I enjoyed it, especially the ending, and then found out that not only was there a book, but it was by acclaimed author Dennis Lehane, who wrote Mystic River among others.  That book, and the movie made from it, were amazing, if depressing, and I went in search of Shutter Island to read the book from which the movie came.

It is possible that if I had read the book first, I would have noticed more glaring differences in the movie as is so often the case, but having seen the movie first I found it is very faithful to the book itself.

In Shutter Island, a team of US Marshals go to the island, which is home to Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the near-impossible disappearance of a patient.  As we go on in the story, we learn that the lead Marshal, Teddy Daniels, has other motives in being there.  His partner, Chuck Aule, is new to him, this being their first case together, and the two bond as the case progresses and they are stranded on the island due to a massive hurricane which cuts the island off from outside contact.

The book does have some differences from the movie, but nothing that was necessary to follow the story.  No major plot points were cut out in the movie, and the story was handled artfully, with Teddy Daniels being played convincingly by Leonardo DiCaprio, one of my favorites since he was in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?“

I truly enjoyed both the book and the movie.  For those of you who have neither seen the movie or read the book I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that I didn’t see it coming.  Since I had already seen the movie, and knew the eventual outcome, I was worried that I wouldn’t like the book as much, that the ending would be ruined.  As it turned out however, I enjoyed the book just as much because I knew what was coming and was anxious to see how the book handled it compared to the movie.  That is, in my opinion, what makes Lehane such a great writer.  Even knowing the final ending, his art as a writer makes the book still worth reading.

I recommend the book to anyone who likes a good psychological thriller, and the movie both to those with the same interest, and fans of DiCaprio.  In both cases, it will be time well spent.

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Movie Review: Julie & Julia

Cover of Julie & Julia

A couple of nights ago I finally got around to watching “Julie & Julia.”  I had wanted to see this movie since it came out in theaters, but my life does not lend itself to actually going to the movies very often.  I didn’t get to the theater before it was gone, and even after its release on DVD there was always something else to see–kids movies, movies that both my husband and I wanted to see–so I didn’t get to see it until I DVR’d it from one of the movie channels.  Even then, we’ve had it for a month or two and I didn’t get around to watching it until one night this week when my husband was working late.

I love this movie.  I know that I should maybe hedge if this is a review and describe the movie first and talk about the character portrayals and blah, blah, blah.  And I will get to that, don’t worry.  But I want to say first that I love this movie because, for one, this will not necessarily be an unbiased description, and two, if you absolutely hated this movie feel free to just stop reading here and move on (or wait for) the next post.  Read some of my older posts, visit another blog, whatever.  I recommend Wil Wheaton‘s blog at http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/ because he’s funny and everyone should know him as more than just “that guy that played Wesley Crusher.”

Julie & Julia, for those of you who haven’t already seen it, is actually two stories in one.  It follows the life of Julia Child from when she and her husband first moved to Paris up until her first cookbook gets published.  At the same time, it is about a woman named Julie who hates her job and her snippy, bitchy friends who do more “important” work, and has just moved to New Jersey with her husband.  She decides, with the advice of her husband and his help, to start a blog.  She loves to cook, and is a great admirer of Julia Child, so she plans to blog about her journey through Julia’s cookbook over the course of a year.  That is, she’ll cook every recipe in the book in 365 days, and blog about it.

Meryl Streep plays Julia Child so brilliantly that after that first moment of “look how much they made her look like Julia Child!” I completely forgot that it wasn’t Julia through the rest of the movie.  Streep had her voice and mannerisms down and just did an amazing job.

Amy Adams, who I’ve always liked, played Julie and she too completely became her character.  I’ve never seen the real Julie interviewed or on TV at all, so I can’t say that Adams portrayal of her was just like the real person.  What I can say is that at no point in the movie was she “Amy Adams” to me, just Julie.

Good writing can also be credited for part of those performances.  There was no point in the movie which brought me out of it by a line or a reaction that just didn’t seem right.  Sometimes, even in the best movies, there is that one line of dialogue, something small but important that just is off and makes you think that the character wouldn’t really have said that.  It is something that just pulls you out for one second and makes you aware of the fact that this is just a movie you’re watching.  With Julie & Julia, I spent the entire movie in that wonderful place where you feel that you’re watching a part of someone’s life unfold in front of you and you just become absorbed in it.

Beyond just being good entertainment, this movie was very inspiring.  When I finished watching it, I wanted to learn to cook better, I wanted to blog more often, I wanted to do SOMETHING that would continue to give me a creative outlet.  What I liked the most, though, is that the Julie at the start of the movie was me.  I worked in a job I hated (I have since been “let go”).  I have a book that hasn’t been published (or edited, at this point, but I’m working on that part).  I have a need for something more in my life, something that is mine.  That’s what this blog is for me.  It’s mine, to do with whatever I choose.

And the fact that Julie’s blog let to bigger and greater things for her?  That’s pretty inspiring too.  We can’t all be Perez Hilton, but what we do can lead us somewhere.  Eventually, there’s a chance that we, as bloggers, aren’t just talking to ourselves.