What I liked about the Swedish version was the careful pacing of the story. There was time to get to know the characters, each episode lasting about 90 minutes against the typical British 60, and yet the directors were sensible enough to cut out unnecessary shots. So when an officer has called in to say he’s located the criminals’ lair, they cut immediately to the police arriving at that place, there’s no waste of time showing repetitive cars driving to the location, etc.

Henriksson is very good in the title role. At times he seems lugubrious yet he can do the dashing cop when needed and isn’t afraid to shoot first. The on/off romance with his new neighbour, a major character in the series is a nice touch, and helps to give him a human side. The two trainee officers are well cast and have quite a part to play in episodes. Admittedly not many trainees get shot, beaten up and hospitalized in their first year, but, hey, a little bit of poetic licence is needed. Nina Zanjani as Isabelle Melin and Sverrir Gudnason as Pontus Höijer are the two young actors. Nina is very promising as an actress.

Sorry there were no English subtitles there! Couldn’t find a video with subs on.

Just caught up with last night’s episode. Very good. There was a terrific end shot of Wallander and one police officer walking away from a hospital and strolling into the town. It was shot in one long sequence with the camera not moving. Wonderful way to finish. The storyline, about a choir teacher having an affair with one of her students and becoming jealous of her lover’s new found friendship with another girl, was well handled and several neat red herrings put in.

So, give the Swedish Wallander a try!

This is a very lightweight read and is probably the kind of book you should take with you onto the beach during your holidays. It’s a detective type story only with a bunch of lawyers, all women, doing the investigating in Philadelphia. ‘Courting Trouble’ centres around the arrival of a new lawyer in the firm and the story is very much her story as she almost singlehandedly goes about resolving the threat on her life. The other three women lawyers are a real mix of characters when it comes to describing their clothes yet they just become a blur as there is little depth to them. The author likes to drop designer labels here and there but that’s too thin a veneer for a proper character creation.

The style is very ‘girlfriendly’ and that word appears quite a number of times in the text. This will either appeal to you or send you running in the opposite direction. I found it a little too much at times and rather forced.

Similarly the humour, with almost asides to the reader by the main character, Anne Murphy, didn’t always work well, especially when placed directly after some tense incident.

To be fair, there is quite a good twist at the end of the plot but generally this really is just a vacation read. It appears Lisa Shottoline has written quite a few in this series, revolving around the law firm, so if it is your thing, you have more to look forward to!

Jessica D’Angelo

The Big Bang Theory is a typical American comedy sitcom – sharp, snappy and well produced. So simple yet so much fun. We love it!

Actually we only discovered it quite recently, and after about 5 or 6 episodes it’s reached the end of it’s current run on the channel we watch! It’s basically about a group of  science students and workers and their friends. It’s a pretty light comedy with short scenes and yet is very tightly written.

Much of the show focuses on science, particularly physics. The four main male characters are in employment at Caltech and have science-related occupations.

Set in Pasadena, California, the show is based around on five characters: two roommate Caltech geniuses, experimental physicist Leonard Hofstadter and theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper; their neighbour across the hall Penny, an gorgeous blonde waitress and wannabe actress; and Leonard’s and Sheldon’s similarly geeky and socially awkward co-workers and friends Howard Wolowitz, an Aerospace engineer and a non-PhD from JPL, and Rajesh Koothrappali, a particle astrophysicist postdoc also working at Caltech. The geekiness and intelligence of the four guys are contrasted for comic effect with Penny’s social skills and common sense.

Cast of characters in The Big Bang Theory:
Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter, Ph.D. – Leonard is an experimental physicist with an IQ of 173 who received his Ph.D. when he was 24 years old. He lives in an apartment with colleague and friend Sheldon Cooper. There is an inferred  latent romance between him and neighbour Penny, and their sexual tension is a regularly explored drama.

Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D. – Originally from East Texas, he was a child prodigy who started college at the age of 11, began graduate studies at 14, and earned his first Ph.D. at 16! A theoretical physicist focusing on string theory, he has a master’s degree, two PhDs, and an IQ of 187. He shows a firm devotion to routine; a lack of understanding of irony, sarcasm, and humour; he is also indifferent to many of the amorous hijinks between Leonard, Howard, and Raj. These characteristics are the main sources of his humour and the basis of a number of episodes. Sheldon shares an apartment with Leonard Hofstadter, across the hall from Penny, and relies on both for guidance in social situations.

Kaley Cuoco  as Penny – She is the attractive blonde,  who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. She wants a career in acting, and has been to casting calls and auditions but has not been successful. She is presently working as a waitress at The Cheesecake Factory.  

Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz, M.Eng. – He works as an aerospace engineer. He is Jewish, and lives with his mother. His father left when he was 11, and, to date, he has never learned why. Unlike Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj, Howard lacks a Ph.D. He defends this by pointing out that he has a master’s degree in Engineering from MIT and the apparatus he designs are built and sent into space, unlike the merely abstract work of his friends. He provides outrageous pick-up lines and sees himself as a lady’s man with duly indifferent reactions from Penny.

Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali, Ph.D. – Rajesh, who originally comes from New Delhi, India, works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech. He is extremely timid around women and is physically not capable of talking to them except when he drinks alcohol. However, he has had much better luck with women than his excessively confident best friend Howard. His parents, Dr. and Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali, are seen via webcam.

Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler, Ph.D. – a woman Raj and Howard meet on an online dating site using a faux account for Sheldon. She is fundamentally a female copy of Sheldon and she and Sheldon become friends although – as Sheldon claims – she is a girl and is his friend, but she is not his “girlfriend”.  Sheldon also “broke up” with Amy when she boasted that neurobiology was superior to theoretical physics! Apparently Mayim was well known for another comedy back in the 90s, called Blossom.

A couple of quotes I recall:
Sheldon: We could also stop using the letter M. But I think that idea is isguided and oronic.

Sheldon: At one point Raj put on reggae music and his sister took off her shoes. It was like the last days of Caligula.

Sheldon: If we lived in the world where slow moving xenon produced light youd be correct. Also, pigs would fly, my derriere would produce cotton candy, and the Phantom Menace would be a timeless classic.

Penny: I hear you broke up with Amy.
Sheldon: Breakup would imply she was my girlfriend. She was a girl who was my friend who is now not my friend.
Penny: Wow, It’s like the worst country song ever.

Leonard: Penny, Steve Wozniack was one of the co-founders of Apple computer. He and Steve Jobs…
Penny: Yeah. I know who he is. I watch Dancing With the Stars.

Penny: Honey, have you ever run before?
Sheldon: Certainly. I’ve run from bullies, dogs, angry chickens and one particularly persistent PE teacher determined to bend me over and give me a scoliosis test.

Series creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady also work together on Two and a Half Men, which has been in the news recently!

So, we are looking forward to the new series of The Big Bang Theory. It’s unusual to base a comedy around science grads and workers and it can’t do anything but good to give people a better impression of a subject many tend to avoid, myself included!

As someone who has a bit of a love/hate relationship with Facebook I approached this movie a few weeks ago with some trepidation. I knew there wasn’t going to be some great love affair or fantastic CGI or scripts of classical literary quality. However, I have to say I was more than pleasantly surprised by what we saw. Of course it was fascinating to see how Facebook came about and from such unexpected sources, but I hadn’t expected such great acting or a mesmerising storyline.

‘The Social Network’ centres around the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg). The film begins with Zuckerberg and his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) breaking up in a bar at university. Zuckerberg is shown as young, very intelligent, and to some extent self-centred. It is his girlfriend’s choice to finish their relationship that gets the film rolling, and in due course leads to the creation of Facebook. The film ends in a correspondingly quiet way, with Zuckerberg alone in front of his laptop, waiting for the same girl to accept his friend request. ‘The Social Network’ is in many ways a very personal story, about a person fixated by motives we can all relate to – love, youthful idealism, and money.

It is here in that opening scene we find out this is not your archetypal ‘college teen’ film. This is a serious film with serious dialogue, stylish characters and an remarkably portentous score (by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) . During the course of this scene, after Zuckerberg’s girlfriend splits from him, he goes back to his dorm room and in a drunken state and starts to write a sarcastic blog entry about her. He then creates an online site that rates the attractiveness of an assortment of women on the campus. These actions are the mechanism that throws The Social Network into gear as you follow Zuckerberg and his business partner Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) on a voyage that finishes with the making of one of the largest internet phenomenon ever.

Eisenberg puts in an amazing performance and only allows Mark to demonstrate emotion when he’s reacting to someone else’s dissatisfaction over his behaviour. Even in those moments, it’s transitory and non-verbal. Mark’s incapability to allow intimate comfort and reassurance is best seen when Eduardo confronts Mark about the Winkelvoss’s effort to shut down “thefacebook.com.” Mark’s neglect to notify his best friend about likely legal troubles ignites an entreaty from Eduardo to confide in one another. Mark merely freezes and agrees to end the conversation. We’re never supposed to identify with or connect to Mark. There can’t be many movies where the audience don’t identify with the protagonist at all!

Women are largely noticeable by their absence. They’re there as dates, interns, or bitch-girlfriend figures. It’s all a bit ironic as it’s a story based around the desire to meet them!

As well as the actors mentioned above, Justin Timberlake also gives another great supporting performance and suggests he’s just as competent an actor as he is singer.

The Social Network is a fascinating movie. It moves along quicklys, told predominantly in flashback, and communicates the unadulterated excitement of this significant social gear-change with style. It’s also astounding to appreciate the events shown here happened in 2005 – it already looks like ancient history!

Oh, and from now on I shall be very careful about how I break up with my boyfriends!

Length: 120 min
Director: David Fincher
Writers: Aaron Sorkin (screenplay), Ben Mezrich (book)

Stars:
Jesse Eisenberg … Mark Zuckerberg
Rooney Mara … Erica Albright
Bryan Barter … Billy Olsen
Brenda Song … Christy
Dustin Fitzsimons … Phoenix Club President
Joseph Mazzello … Dustin Moskovitz
Patrick Mapel … Chris Hughes
Andrew Garfield … Eduardo Saverin
Toby Meuli … Phoenix Member Playing Facemash
Alecia Svensen … Girl at Phoenix Club
Calvin Dean … Mr. Edwards
Malese Jow … Alice Cantwell
Justin Timberlake … Sean Parker
Dakota Johnson … Amelia Ritter
Nancy Linari … Larry Summers’ Secretary
Douglas Urbanski … Larry Summers
Inger Tudor … Anne
and many more…

Jessica D’Angelo

I just love this song! It’s terrible to admit but I wasn’t really a fan of the Manic Street Preachers until their latest album, also called Postcards From A Young Man. The songs though are just so commercial that they stuck in my head and they are still stuck on my iPod! I loved the first two songs from that album, (It’s Not War) Just the End of Love and Some Kind of Nothingness.

Manic Street Preachers are an alternative rock band from Blackwood, Wales, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield (vocals, guitars), Nicky Wire (bass, occasional vocals) and Sean Moore (drums, backing vocals, occasional trumpet). The band are part of the Cardiff music scene, which was at its most prominent during the 1990s.

The band were initially a quartet: lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards disappeared on 1 February 1995.  In November 2008, thirteen years after his vanishing, he was formally confirmed presumed deceased.

Following Edwards’ disappearance, Bradfield, Moore, and Wire persisted with the Manic Street Preachers and went on to achieve critical and commercial success, becoming one of Britain’s leading rock bands.

The Manics released their debut album, Generation Terrorists in 1992. Their blend of androgynous glam punk imagery, forthright diatribes and songs about “culture, alienation, boredom and despair” rapidly gained them a devoted following and cult status. The band’s later albums retained a leftist politicisation and cerebral lyrical style, while adopting a broader alternative rock sound.

The Manics lead the way for a renaissance of guitar bands in Wales. In the press, they were made to live with punning headlines referring to sheep, boyos and leeks – they got all the clichés out of the way so the bands of the so-called Cool Cymru would be taken more seriously.

They have had eight top ten albums and fifteen top ten singles.

Manic Street Preachers released their tenth studio album, Postcards from a Young Man, on 20 September 2010. The album features several guest artists: Duff McKagan on A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun, John Cale on Auto-Intoxication and Ian McCulloch on Some Kind Of Nothingness.

I’m not sure I could listen to a whole album of their songs, but then that’s true of most bands and singers, I do like variety! But these three songs are, well, just pure ‘MANIC’!

I don't believe in absolutes anymore
I'm quite prepared to admit I was wrong
This life it sucks your principles away
You have to fight against it every single day

These are the postcards from a young man
They may never be written or posted again
These are the postcards from a young man
They may never be written or posted again

It is like so many other things
As distant as your former sins
So sad and lonely and so derelict
As the optimism that we once shared

These are the postcards from a young man
They may never be written or posted again
These are the postcards from a young man
They may never be written or posted again

I'll send you postcards every single day
Just to prove I still exist
This world will not impose its will
I will not give up and I will not give in
And I will not give up and I will not give in

I won't betray your confidence
I won't pretend my way was lost
This world will not impose its will
I will not give up and I will not give in

Trail of Blood by S.J.Rozan

I do enjoy escaping into an American detective story, especially if the lead character is female. But I have to admit that I found this one disappointing. Not knowing anything about the author I just dived in also having not noticed that the main private investigator was Chinese. I found the Chinese names a little difficult to get used to, even though there were also many American characters.

The story is set mainly around New York and that would usually get me enthralled but there was very little description of the sights and sounds of that wonderful city. It’s these things which really build up the atmosphere for these stories but it was totally lacking here. In fact, it almost felt as if the writer just had a street map on her lap and had never actually bee to New York in person! I’m probably completely wrong yet that’s how it came across.

Reading the blurbs in the book it appears there are other stories involving the two main characters – Lydia Chin and Bill Smith – however again I felt there was little real description of them or their background. In places there was some fluent dialogue between the two but these involved very little indication of their emotions or way of talking. So many of these detective type books hang around two contrasting leads and if they don’t catch the reader’s attention then not much else will work.

The story involves a lot of discovering the lives of various characters back in World War Two and tracking the whereabouts of jewellery belonging to a Jewish family who fled the Nazis. I didn’t really enjoy having to read through the old letters from these characters, it slowed the plot down. I’m sure the same key information could have been put across in another way.

On the back cover one other writer describes the character development as being as good as Raymond Chandler’s – lol, how much was he paid to say that! Rubbish.

So this not a book to recommend sadly and I will not be looking for more stories by this author. But what do I know…

Jessica D’Angelo

The opening ten minutes or so could be really confusing if you hadn’t already heard something about the premise of this film. You are thrown straight into various dream variations with basically the same characters involved. If you came into this film blind then this could be quite confusing! The special effects are amazing however, so just sit back and enjoy it, all will make sense eventually!

Running at around 2 hours 20 minutes there’s plenty of time after this explosive beginning for the plot to be be developed and the main storyline to be set up. I have to admit my concentration began to waver a little, I think because the opening had been so good I couldn’t wait for the next dream sequences to begin! Once it does you are not disappointed.

I think it’s a great twist that the plans go wrong at once, with a massive train thundering down a street and heavily armed men trying to finish out ‘heroes’ before they have even started. I thought this was a much better idea than letting the plot go along okay and then throw a twist in at a later point. The part played by the wife of the main character (DiCaprio) is superb and adds an extra dimension to this complicated film.

There are some tremendous sequences once the three dream sequence plays out. A fight in a zero gravity hotel hallway was one of my favourites. I won’t give away the ending – enjoy it yourself!

Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent and continues to improve with age. His battle with his wife is intense and a flawed hero always works so well. Is it just me or does he look more and more like Brando as he ages? Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I recall from the very funny TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun, is a very capable sidekick. Marion Cotillard is wonderful as the increasingly sinister wife of DiCaprio and oozes French class. Ellen Page plays the young student who creates the dream worlds for DiCaprio and she becomes an increasingly important character in the movie. Although she seems rather slight physically she really starts to dominate the screen through her personality.

I have to admit I couldn’t really see the worth of Michael Caine’s caneo role. I think another unknown actor could have done that part just as well if not better. Older film goers will enjoy, however, seeing Tom Berenger strutting the screen again.

Overall this a great film, very exciting, and it must spawn a sequel or an Inception 2 with or without the same actors. Oh, and the DVD has some very interesting extras on a seperate disc.

148 min
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan

Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a professional thief who specializes in conning secrets from his victims by infiltrating their dreams. Cobb leads a team consisting of Arthur, Ariadne, Eames, Saito, and Yusuf, with the goal of influencing Robert Fischer’s actions via his dreams. DiCaprio was the first actor to be cast in the film. Nolan had been trying to work with the actor for years and met him a number of times, but was unable to persuade him to appear in any of his films until Inception.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb’s partner who takes “point” during jobs and is responsible for researching the team’s targets.
Ellen Page as Ariadne, a graduate student of architecture who is recruited to create the various dreamscapes, which are described as mazes. The name Ariadne alludes to a princess of Greek myth, daughter of King Minos, who aided the hero Theseus by giving him a sword and a ball of string to help him plot a route through the labyrinth which was the prison of the Minotaur.
Tom Hardy as Eames, a sharp-tongued associate of Cobb’s. Eames uses his ability to take the form of others inside the dream world in order to manipulate Robert Fischer in his own dreams.
Ken Watanabe as Mr. Saito, a businessman who employs Cobb for the team’s mission, and insists on joining them inside
Dileep Rao as Yusuf, a chemist who formulates the drugs needed to sustain the dream states.
Cillian Murphy as Robert Michael Fischer, the heir to a business empire and the team’s target.
Tom Berenger as Peter Browning, Robert Fischer’s godfather and fellow executive at the Fischers’ company.
Marion Cotillard as Mallorie “Mal” Cobb, Dom Cobb’s projection of his deceased wife and a frequent, malicious presence in his dreams. As the film’s main antagonist, she is a manifestation of his guilt about the real Mal’s suicide. Dom is unable to control these projections of her, challenging his abilities as an extractor.
Pete Postlethwaite as Maurice Fischer, Robert’s dying father.
Michael Caine as Prof. Stephen Miles, Cobb’s mentor and father-in-law, and Ariadne’s college professor who recommends her to the team.
Lukas Haas as Nash, an architect in Cobb’s employment who is replaced by Ariadne.
Miranda Nolan plays a minor role as an air hostess. Miranda is a first cousin to the film’s director Christopher Nolan.

Jessica D’Angelo

‘Rolling The Deep’ comes from Adele’s new album, 21, and has been surging up the charts. Some have linked it with a song by the Rolling Stones but despite some similarities this is a unique and outstanding song. I just love the tone of her voice and her clever lyrics. Brilliant!

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born on 5 May 1988 and she is known professionally as Adele and is an English singer songwriter. She was the first beneficiary of the BRIT Awards Critics’ Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008. She is a multi-Grammy Awards nominee who has won two awards, Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2009.

Adele drew the attention of XL Recordings with a three-song demo posted on MySpace and later signed with that label. Since her debut, 19, Adele has been given great respect both commercially and critically. The album debuted at number one, and has been certified 2x platinum in the UK.

Adele graduated from BRIT School in Croydon in May 2006, where she was classmates with Leona Lewis. She used the web to help broaden the availability of her music. Her MySpace page was the one used since 2004 by Adele. However the visitors improved in numbers when she portrayed a couple of her songs on PlatformsMagazine.com. In a while these songs helped Adele to get promoted on to concerts around UK with other talented artists.

Adele started touring in 2007 to support her maiden song “Hometown Glory”, a song devoted to her locale of Tottenham. The song entered   the UK charts on #32. This triumph resulted in Adele’s live TV concert with Paul McCartney and Bjorn Bjork.

2008 saw a series of releases by Adele. “Chasing Pavements” and “Cold Shoulder” were the two singles released. “Chasing Pavements” held second position on the UK charts and also ranked seventh in Ireland. The second song was released with Adele’s first album 19. This album took the first place in UK charts just after a week of its release.

Her career in the US was given a boost by a viewer record breaking Saturday Night Live episode in late 2008. Adele released her second album 21 on 24 January 2011 in the UK; the release is due on 22 February in the US. The album was again a critical and commercial success.

At the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele won awards in the categories of Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.  She was also listed for in the categories of Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

“As soon as I got a microphone in my hand, when I was about 14, I realised I wanted to do this,” she says. “Most people don’t like the way their voice sounds when it’s recorded. I was just so excited by the whole thing that I wasn’t bothered what it sounded like.”

A fan of such assorted artists as Jill Scott, Etta James, Billy Bragg, Peggy Lee, Jeff Buckley and The Cure, Adele’s soul-tinged songs of love’s lost and memories made are set to resound with all who hear them.

Jessica D’Angelo

This is a slightly different review as it is about something which I’ve finished watching yet!
‘The Killing’ is a Danish TV detective series which is currently being shown on BBC4 here in the UK.   It is shown on Saturday night in two one hour blocks. I’m watching it on the BBC iPlayer on my computer on Sundays.It was originally released in Denmark as Forbrydelsen (“The Crime”).  The first season was aired in 2007 on DR in Denmark.

Sarah Lund is looking forward to her last day as a detective with the Copenhagen Police department. She is supposed to move to Sweden with her fiancé, but everything changes when a 19-year-old girl, Nanna Birk Larsen, is found raped and brutally murdered. Along with detective Jan Meyer, Sarah is forced to head the investigation, as it soon becomes clear that she and Meyer are chasing a very intelligent and dangerous murderer.

Local politician Troels Hartmann is in the middle of a hard election campaign to become the new mayor of Copenhagen when suddenly, evidence links him to the murderer. But is he really the murderer? At the same time, the girl’s family and friends struggle to cope with their loss.

Over a span of twenty days, suspect upon suspect is sought out as violence and political pressures cast their shadows over the hunt for the killer.

The programme is shown with subtitles which I found offputting in the first episode. I was concentrating so hard on reading the words that I had no idea which character was which! However, I soon became used to the subtitles and really found myself glued to the story. Because the plot is being developed over a long period you get a lot more development of each different character and potential storyline. In one hour or one and a half hour TV shows you usually see the grieving parents at the beginning and the end, almost as an afterthought. In The Killing, you are constantly being referred to them, partly because the father is a person with a suspect background, and partly so that the viewer does not forget the awful consequences of the murder. Just as you are getting into a line of questioning you are suddenly shown the despondent parents and the horror of the murder comes back again. It’s particularly moving when the mother and father are in the police station and a detective leaves a door open, and the parents gaze out and through into another open office only to see the photographs from the pathologist’s office pinned to the wall. It’s a very powerful moment.

The entwining of a political issue only adds to the red herrings (or are they?), and the intensity of that storyline could almost make a seperate TV show! I think because the actors are all new to me, it makes the story so much more convincing. I’m not saying to my friends ‘Hey, that’s so-and-so from that other programme!’

The ‘darkness’ of the subject matter and the environment adds up to create an almost ‘film noire’ atmosphere. I’ve seen 4 double episodes so far, and I believe there another 6 to go, making the programme cover the 20 days of the investigation. I shall add more here as the plot unwinds. Catch it if you can!

And I understand that a second series was made and a third is being made…so watch out for them.

Sofie Gråbøl …  Sarah Lund
Lars Mikkelsen …  Troels Hartmann
Bjarne Henriksen …  Theis Birk Larsen  
Ann Eleonora Jørgensen …  Pernille Birk Larsen 
Marie Askehave …  Rie Skovgaard
Michael Moritzen …  Morten Weber  
Søren Malling …  Jan Meyer

Jessica D’Angelo

UPDATE:
Now just 3 more double episodes to go…
It’s so compelling, so many people with secrets they are reluctant to disclose, some because they are up to no good and some because they are trying to do good!. It’s a powerful theme running throughout the series.
The camerwork is excellent – slow close ups make some situations so intense, particularly where the victim’s family are concerned.
On we go…

I loved this film!
I never realised it was going to be as dark or even horrific as it was, even though a friend had warned me it was far more than just a film about a ballerina. Because of the way the film is handled the ballet dancing is never boring if you’re not into that style of dancing – it fact it has you on the edge of your seat because of what else is going on in the storyline!

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a young dancer with the New York City Ballet who is preparing for a production of Swan Lake choreographed by the magnetic Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). He’s looking for a lead to replace poorly star Beth (Winona Ryder). She must have the virginal refinement of the White Swan, but also the essential fervour of the Black Swan. Nina, he believes, lacks the latter; she is too poised, too much in control. The insinuation is obvious. If she wants to land the role she desires, she must be willing to utterly let herself go.

As Nina becomes obsessed by the role she suffers from lurid hallucinations partly brought on by her rival Lily (Mila Kunis) spiking her drink. To give you an idea of Nina’s actions she has sex with Lily, masturbates more and more, and all the hysterical, Munch-style paintings start to writhe and shriek at her mother’s house. Oh, and feathers grow out of her back and her feet become webbed!!
Natalie Portman is brilliant in the lead role, especially her facial expressions as she comes under increasing strain. The hand-held camerawork suits the subject matter and the music mixes classical and modern styles cleverly.

The most toxic, ecstatic, over-the-top, operatic movie about a mentally disintegrating ballerina you’ll see . And including some of the best dance sequences ever.

108 minutes

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Writing credits
(WGA)
Mark Heyman (screenplay) and
Andres Heinz (screenplay) (as Andrés Heinz) and
John J. McLaughlin (screenplay) (as John McLaughlin)
Andres Heinz (story) (as Andrés Heinz)

Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel

Jessica D’Angelo