In Black Swan award-winning actress Natalie Portman portrays an ambitious, yet tormented prima ballerina struggling to handle the pressure of her new found stardom.

While Black Swan is arguably a cinematic masterpiece that manipulates, shocks, and reels in the viewer, the film falls short of ‘film of the year’ due to its poor plot progression and lack of character depth.

Nina Sayers (Portman) belongs to a prestigious New York ballet company where she has been dancing for years but has yet to achieve her moment in the spotlight. This changes when the director of the ballet, Thomas (Vincent Cassel), begins production on his edgy, new version of Swan Lake and calls upon Nina to portray the role of the Swan Queen.

Soon hereafter enters Lily (Mila Kunis), a dancer new to the New York company. As Lily begins to catch Thomas’’s eye Nina’s fears of being usurped from her role begin to grow in a downward spiral of paranoia and fear.

What causes Black Swan to fall drastically short is its lack of a moving or emotional story. Portman’s impassioned portrayal of Nina does not connect with the viewer and at times seems unbelievable. Never once does Nina seem passionate about dance, something she supposedly loves, making it seem very improbable she would go to such lengths for retain her highly coveted role.

From start to finish, it is clear Nina has many inner demons she is struggling to battle, the viewer is thus left expecting her untimely fall from grace at the end of the film.