irish_joe

This was the feature directorial debut for Duncan (Zowie Haywood) Jones, formerly known as Zowie Bowie and son of David Bowie, and was shot with a relatively modest budget of $5m. That pushed the seven star rating I would normally have given this film up to an eight.

The story is set in the future and follows Sam Bell who is a miner approaching the end of a three-year contract working entirely alone at a lunar mining base. He has only an intelligent robot called GERTY (remember HAL?) for company, plus occasional video messages from his wife on earth. He is cracking up from loneliness and looking forward to leaving in a few weeks when a accident while working sets an unexpected series of events in motion.

Jones has clearly tried hard to evoke sci-fi classics from the 1960s up to the 1980s, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Silent Running (1971), and Alien (1979). That is visible in the writing, with the futuristic sci-fi context being used only to support the story rather than being allowed to take over as so often happens nowadays with special effects such a focus in sci-fi. It is also visible in the cinematography which uses the enclosed spaces of the lunar mining base to great effect and the colouring work done on the movie has given a real retro feel to the images. Gavin Rothery who worked on visual effects for the movie has some fascinating background on all of this on his blog at http://www.gavinrothery.com/moon-blog-index . All of this works really well and is impressive given the limited resources.

Where the movie goes wrong for me is that after a great build-up, it seems to fizzle out in the last quarter. There are many questions created in the mind of the viewer but never answered, and suggestions made that are not followed up, and many possibilities for deeper explorations of the reasons, meanings, effects of the issues raised that are never pursued. And so it leaves and unsatisfying taste in your mouth. Perhaps the story should have been paced differently to keep the big reveal of Sam's mystery until closer to the end? Or maybe the pacing was right and we just needed more depth of detail towards the end, which could have been dropped due to the tight budget of course.

Anyhow, this is on the whole an enjoyable, thought-provoking and solid sci-fi flick and I'll be watching out for Duncan Jones' next feature.

p.s. Since I've focused only on Jones, I should say that Sam Rockwell was excellent as the one proper character (Sam Bell) in the movie, and GERTY is ably voiced by Kevin Spacey also.

The ONLY positive thing I can say about this is that it looks great on screen, stunning actually at times. Everything else was disastrous. The biggest problem was the plot, which would have been naive and clichéd if it had been done well, but did not even live up to that and ended up being simply nonsensical. I could literally list dozens of contradictions, holes and unexplainable oddities in the storyline. Then there was the acting which was uninspired to be kind about it, which obviously leads you to wonder about the direction. I find it hard to understand how a movie like this which should have been great can go so completely wrong and not be caught by the studio quality control somewhere before release, or perhaps it was too far gone too fix by then. I find it harder to understand how people are giving this movie positive reviews. Major disappointment given the director's history with this genre.

This movie is an examination of obsession, and a mother living vicariously through her daughter. Ultimately it proves to be a journey into madness. Natalie Portman is utterly believable throughout as the shy but talented Nina Sayers, and deserves the awards she is likely to receive for this performance. Mila Kunis plays the darker role of Lily with equal skill and style. For me, these two make the movie although they are very ably supported by Barbara Hershey as Ninas mother, Winona Ryder as the usurped prima ballerina, and Vincent Cassel as the company's artistic director.

Black Swan has to be one of the more original psychological thrillers in recent years. Although the first hour goes a little slowly, there is a complex plot building all the while. As the film goes on, and it becomes clear that the line between hallucination and reality is fading for Nina, the skills of director Darren Aronofsky really come to the fore. The production is superb, with beautiful camera work and light use of CGI to illustrate the hallucinations which are taking Nina over.

Overall this is a highly enjoyable and well delivered movie, with a tight story and plenty of surprises in store!