What would it take to feel truly, madly, perfectly alive?

For Nina Sayers, "Black Swan's" fiercely ambitious and fearfully repressed heroine, the answer is simple.

This sweet, waif-like perfectionist longs to play the dual lead in "Swan Lake," a role that is both virginal beauty and evil seductress.

But can this good girl and flawless technician ignite those dark fires deep inside her to seduce a crowd?

That is the dilemma that faces this 20-something dancer, who stands at a critical juncture in her career as "Black Swan" begins.


In Portman's hands, Nina is a revelation. With this one role she leaps from good little Hollywood actress to serious leading lady.


Land the part and become a star. Fail and end up stuck in the corps de ballet, the place where dancers with big dreams go to die.

This may sound like predictable melodrama. And in some ways, "Black Swan" brings to mind words made famous by Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis: "A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free."

But Darren Aronofsky's slick, psycho-sexual thriller celebrates madness to the max and the dark side of letting go.

Think of "The Red Shoes," "All About Eve" and "Repulsion" on hallucinogens. That is how Aronofsky plays it here and how Natalie Portman embodies his luridly voluptuous vision of a dancer gone mad.

That is the perfect abandon that turns "Black Swan" on its head, making it less about ballet and more about the price anyone will pay for just one fleeting moment of perfection.

Portman effortlessly embodies crazed ambition

As he did in "The Wrestler" and "Requiem for a Dream," Aronofsky creates a lead character who is mesmerizingly complex and drawn to extremes.

This tiny, doll-like creature trains until her toes bleed. She downs her daily quota of half a grapefruit and then pukes it up to stay child-like svelte for her art.

Nina is also surrounded by a troupe of bitchy, duplicitous dancers who would knife her in the back with the slightest provocation.

Portman's beauty, initially, makes us see Nina and sympathize with her as this story unfolds. But it's the way Portman slips into Nina's insanity that makes us see this heroine through to her grisly end.

Saddled with a controlling ex-dancer for a mother, Nina's overly-protective guardian (Barbara Hershey) keeps her daughter's room fluffed with dolls and her confidence flattened.

Nina is sexually repressed and scratches herself until she bleeds from her dancer's "nerves."

She also steals lipstick and perfume bottles from the company's star dancer (Winona Ryder) just to feel like a real prima ballerina.

Yet all this is child's play next to the demons that emerge after Nina lands the lead in "Swan Lake."

Suddenly Nina sees her darker, alter ego on subway platforms and in mirrors indulging in terrible acts.

The company's artistic director (played with just the right soupcon of sleaze by Vincent Cassel) brutalizes her emotions at every turn.

"Would you f**ck her?" this Balanchine-like tyrant screams at Nina's dancing partner. The young man's silence says volumes. But the crazed, humiliated woman keeps on dancing.

Paranoid Nina even accuses a new company member (Mila Kunis) of trying to steal her role. Yet mounting suspicions cannot keep Nina from sleeping with her free-spirited rival.

Or does she?

Aronofsky never really lets us know for sure whether all this dark, whirling psychodrama is real or a product of Nina's mental illness.

He also does a superb job of creating a cutthroat world of snarling, tutu-clad sadists who would do anything for their shot at fame. In this director's hands, ballet is a death sport, not some girly pastime.

In Portman's hands, Nina is a revelation. With this one role Portman leaps from good little Hollywood actress to serious leading lady.

Her brilliant metamorphosis into this troubled perfectionist also carries an unmistakable message: all-consuming daring and desire can destroy one's soul -- or worse.

Three and a half stars out of four.