Inception

Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Darren Aronofsky Stage Mesmerizing ‘Black Swan’

BrianTT — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:14:27 -0500

Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” pulses with the kind of energy and life that we only see from cinema a few times a year. With creative expression rarely seen in American film and one of the best performances by an actress that you will ever see, “Black Swan” is a film that resonates for hours and even days after you see it. You won’t easily shake this masterpiece. And you won’t want to.

There are films that twist and turn toward a specific interpretation. Films like “Fight Club” or “The Sixth Sense” rely on a twist that is designed to change the way you view what you just saw while films like “Inception” work to constantly keep the viewer asking questions about exactly “what is going on.” It may be tempting to approach “Black Swan” in the same way – trying to figure out exactly what’s real and what’s imagined; trying to “interpret” the film.

Black Swan
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight

And yet not all art needs to be explained. There’s a moment in “Black Swan” where a teacher looks at a student and instructs her that all that stands in front of her is herself and that she needs to let herself go. It could very well be a stand-in for Aronofsky and the viewer: the director telling you to simply take this ride. Don’t look at it as a mystery to be solved. We appreciate forms of art in which we’re more accustomed to unexplainable events like ballet, opera, or even dance without question – merely taking in the emotion and riding on the feelings. Aronofsky and writers Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin are trying to do much the same thing. Don’t interpret the dream literally. Just marvel at what it makes you feel.

In a career-best performance that also stands as the best of the year in any category, Natalie Portman stars as a ballet dancer named Nina Sayers. She’s a fragile soul who lives with her mother (Barbara Hershey) and has clearly devoted much of her body and soul to her craft. Nina works for a company headed by the intense Thomas (Vincent Cassel), who announces that he will be staging a deconstruction of the legendary “Swan Lake.” His longtime lead dancer Beth (Winona Ryder) will not be taking the role of The Swan Queen, leaving it open for Nina to prove that she’s worth the part. Meanwhile, a newcomer named Lily (Mila Kunis) threatens Nina’s possible stardom while also challenging her to find the “Black Swan” within.

“Black Swan” is a film about many things and it’s naturally hard for a critic to say “don’t interpret it” and then offer an interpretation, but I think the thematic foundation of the story is about how much of an artist is required to give of herself to succeed. If “The Wrestler” was about a man who gave his entire body for success, “Black Swan” is a film about a woman who gives even more – her identity. She loses herself completely first by giving over her physical self and then possibly goes insane, depending on your interpretation of the chilling, terrifying final act of the film, in which it becomes unclear what’s real and what’s imagined and, as I said, only really becomes effective when you realize it doesn’t matter.

Black Swan
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight

To say “Black Swan” plays like a nightmare doesn’t quite capture it. Too many films have played like bad dreams and that clichéd description doesn’t quite work here. Like the best work of David Lynch or Dario Argento, “Black Swan” plays like part-dream and part-reality at the same time. It’s more about symbols, emotions, themes, and other elements that most filmmakers don’t even dare try to capture in film. It works on parts of your brain and heart that moviegoers aren’t used to exercising in the theater and, consequently, it’s certainly not a film for everyone. But those who love it will fall head over heels.

As far as the individual elements of “Black Swan” are concerned, I simply can’t say enough about Natalie Portman’s performance. She gives all of herself to the part and is simply devastating in every scene. It is the kind of dedication by an actor that we only see every few years. Mila Kunis does the best work of her career and Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey take roles that could have easily become hammy villains and give mesmerizing performances. They’re both worthy of supporting Oscar consideration.

Black Swan
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight

Of course, when an entire ensemble delivers as completely as the one in “Black Swan,” credit must go to the director and Darren Aronofsky’s accomplishments here cannot be understated. This is such a confident, powerful piece of directorial work, beautifully merging themes that he’s played with before (obsession, performance, control, madness) with the technical accomplishments of regular collaborators like cinematographer Matthew Libatique and composer Clint Mansell.

“Black Swan” will be something different for you than it was for me, but to this viewer it represents that thing only seen in a movie theater a few times a year – when cinema transcends celluloid to become art.

‘Black Swan’ stars Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder. It was written by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin and directed by Darren Aronofsky. It opens on December 3rd, 2010. It is rated R.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Following ‘The Dark Knight,’ Nolan’s ‘Inception’ is a Mind-Stupefying Masterpiece

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:11:21 -0400

Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – After thinking it’d take “a couple months” to ink, director Christopher Nolan (of “The Dark Knight” fame) took eight years to painstakingly write the “Inception” script. And you can tell. It’s his first pure masterpiece.

“Inception” is a rare summer blockbuster that lives up to the hype and bucks the typical formula. Like “The Usual Suspects,” you can’t miss a second or you’ll fall behind. Still, considering the hype for his “The Dark Knight” in 2008 (which arguably featured the most aggressive and successful viral networking campaign of all time), “Inception” went beneath the hype radar as compared to that monolithic blockbuster.

Ken Watanabe (back) in “Inception”.
Image credit: Steven Vaughan, Warner Bros.

Almost exactly two years after “The Dark Knight” hit theaters and obliterated box-office records, the film has now grossed more than a whopping $1 billion on a production budget of $185 million. And while “Inception” is piggybacking off of the success from “The Dark Knight” by selling it as coming “from the director that brought you ‘The Dark Knight,’” there’s little comparison.

That said, it’s no surprise why the cinematography looks similar – and similarly masterful – in the two films. Veteran Wally Pfister was again enlisted as cinematographer for “Inception” after shooting other Nolan films including “The Prestige,” “Batman Begins,” “Insomnia” and “Memento”.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (back) in “Inception”.
Image credit: Steven Vaughan, Warner Bros.

Like in “The Dark Knight,” “Inception” again focuses on sweeping metropolis shots. Musically, both films have similarities, too, as both have original music composed by Hans Zimmer. But “Inception” stands on its own for Nolan in that it’s his first feature debut that is a completely original work since 1998’s “Following”. All other Nolan films since then are either remakes or based on comics, short stories or novels.

“Inception” alternates between the real world and the dream world while confusingly blurring the line between the two. Characters in the film are often confused about which is which and sometimes even prefer the dream world – which has “The Matrix”-style similarities – over the real world.

Leonardo DiCaprio (left) and Marion Cotillard in “Inception”.
Image credit: Steven Vaughan, Warner Bros.

In fact, lovers Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mal (Marion Cotillard) even spend 50 years in a dream while growing old together. But the heart of the film centers around Cobb’s nearly unachievable feat to create “inception” – in order to send himself “home” and deal with a catastrophe – by planting an idea into the head of the wealthy Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy) and allowing it to manifest naturally. The film even tackles the captivating concept of a dream within a dream within a dream (i.e. to the third level).

Now while the story that is “Inception” is entirely dissimilar to Nolan’s either-you-love-it-or-you-hate-it “Memento” from 2000, “Inception” immediately brings “Memento” to mind in that they are both aggressive mind bogglers. And “Inception” isn’t marketing the line “where the scene of the crime is your mind” for funsies. Rather, the film masterfully attacks your brain through a symphony of sights, sounds, plot twists and action.

Leonardo DiCaprio in “Inception”.
Image credit: Steven Vaughan, Warner Bros.

You never know what’s coming next. This film is as challenging to predict as when our economy would emerge out of a recession during those gloomy days. If you’re not relentlessly kept on the edge of your seat for this mystery/thriller, that’s because you’ll have already fallen off.
The imagery in “Inception” uniquely calls to mind M.C. Escher-style “impossible” mazes. Even the labyrinthine style of the film’s logo resembles the logo for Syncopy, which is Nolan’s production company.

While the contemporary sci-fi action film is “set within the architecture of the mind” (as Nolan cryptically described it during the film’s production when all other details of the plot were kept clandestine), Nolan enlisted Ellen Page of “Juno” fame as his maze builder.

Ken Watanabe (left) and Marion Cotillard in “Inception”.
Image credit: Melissa Moseley, Warner Bros.

Page took the role of Ariadne after Evan Rachel Wood turned it down and considerations were made for Emily Blunt, Emma Roberts and Rachel McAdams. While Page’s job was to design the layouts of dream sequences, she also had the important role of earning a deeper understanding into Cobb’s psyche. She witnessed his pain of lost love with Mal that was actually haunting him behind closed doors.

The film is lengthy, but you wouldn’t know it. These 148 minutes fly by and keep you engaged with very little lull time. You can literally feel Nolan’s blood vessels popping in his brain as he deliberately and patiently weaved this story of mental madness with endless intrigue and boundless imagination.

The only potential downside to the complexity of this story is that, unfortunately, it’ll be over some people’s heads.

It’d be unusual for someone to fully grasp each and every plot point of this fast-paced, brainy movie.

Instead, we’re left absolutely content with grasping as much as we possibly can while we coast along every frame of this thrill ride all the way through its flawless cliffhanger of an ending.

“Inception” from writer and director Christopher Nolan stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Dileep Rao, Pete Postlethwaite, Lukas Haas, Tai-Li Lee, Claire Geare and Magnus Nolan. The film, which is rated “PG-13” for sequences of violence and action throughout, has a running time of 148 minutes. “Inception” opened nationwide on July 16, 2010.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief/Publisher
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com