An over-the-top performance in an over-the-top movie: Black Swan

That poor Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) in "Black Swan" doesn't stand a chance: horrific stage mother (Barbara Hershey), predatory director, extreme jealousy from all the other girl dancers in her ballet company - is it any wonder that over the course of the movie she goes insane? Yes, it is a wonder - most movies would show her valiantly fighting, proving that she deserves to dance the lead in Swan Lake, triumphant. Black Swan isn't about ballet as much as it's about insanity: Portman doesn't triumph over the pressure but succumbs to it. I've read some on-line criticism of Black Swan, angry at its implication that a successful woman artist/dancer has to either prostitute herself or go mad in order to succeed. I don't think the implication is that all have to do so - but it's a pretty powerful look at one dancer in a horrible situation who succumbs to enormous pressure. Whether it's something you'd want to see or ought to see, I don't know - it's very painful to watch, brutal even, and I had to close my eyes several times during horror-film like, loathesome episodes of gore. It also strains belief that a ballet dancer at her level (the lead in a Lincoln Center production) would be so naive about life and insecure about her abilities, or that a director at that level would cast an obviously unsuited and unprepared dancer in the lead. It's also ludicrous to hear the director speak to the company as if they're a high-school troupe (more visceral! more passion!) - puh-leeze. All that said, great over-the-top performance by Portman in a totally over-the-top film that probably ought to be an opera.