• Malcolm Turner and his stepson go under cover at an all-girls school to find a killer.
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• A college student’s roommate has a sinister side.
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• A man enlists the help of a woman and her kids to land the woman of his dreams.
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• Justin Bieber rises from a street performer in his Ontario hometown to worldwide superstardom.
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• Two garden gnomes try to avoid tragedy and find a happy ending to their star-crossed love affair.
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• In Roman-ruled Britain, a young Roman soldier endeavors to honor his father’s memory by finding his lost legion’s golden emblem.
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• John (Alex Pettyfer) is an extraordinary young man. Three like him have already been killed…he is Number Four.
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• A coma patient (Liam Neeson) awakes and finds that his wife does not recognize him.
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• An Australian actor tries to help England’s Prince Albert overcome a speech impediment.
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Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office

• The spoiled heir (Seth Rogen) to a newspaper fortune becomes a costumed crimefighter.
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• A college student’s roommate has a sinister side.
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• A skilled diver (Richard Roxburgh) and his team become trapped in an underwater labyrinth.
  #
• In Roman-ruled Britain, a young Roman soldier endeavors to honor his father’s memory by finding his lost legion’s golden emblem.
  #
• An Australian actor tries to help England’s Prince Albert overcome a speech impediment.
  #
• Two garden gnomes try to avoid tragedy and find a happy ending to their star-crossed love affair.
  #
• A teenager enlists the aid of a boozy, trigger-happy lawman to find her father’s killer.
  #
• Justin Bieber rises from a street performer in his Ontario hometown to worldwide superstardom.
  #
• A man enlists the help of a woman and her kids to land the woman of his dreams.
  #
• Two lifelong friends (Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher) try not to let sex ruin their relationship.
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Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office

There has been a lot of hype surrounding Black Swan and in particular Natalie Portman’s performance in it. She plays disturbed ballet dancer Nina Sayers and fortunately she does not overact the role, which would have been easy to do.  If anything, she underplays the part so that it’s not clear until the movie’s end exactly what is going in Nina’s mind. This helps achieve suspense and tension. I’m not sure it’s an oscarworthy performance though, as I did feel that her performance was greatly boosted by the film’s own tension increasing techniques; such as the powerful sharp bursts of music and the rapid cutting between shots.

Nina Sayers (Portman) is a technically brilliant ballet dancer looking for a chance to prove herself. After playing supporting roles for years, she has reached a stage where she feels like it’s her time to be in the limelight. Her ballet company reveal they are putting on a production of Swan Lake, the famous ballet where the leading dancer has to play two parts: one white good swan, and one black bad/evil  swan. Her ballet instructor (Vincent Cassel) auditions her for the lead role but initially feels that although she has the technical abilities to play the White Swan part of the role, she lacks the raw edginess needed to pull off the part of The Black Swan. He sees something in her one day after class though that causes him to change his mind and he announces to everyone’s surprise that she is his choice for the role.

The story to Black Swan is a familiar one that has been done before; a young struggling dancer attempting to achieve her life’s ambition. This is not a simple success story though, as Nina’s success comes at a price. As Nina struggles to get to grips with both parts, her increasingly disturbed state is emphasised by sharp bursts of  music and rapid cutting between shots which successfully builds up tension. She wants to achieve perfection and be amazing in the role, but in order to this, she has to embrace a side of herself that might have been better kept hidden.

In many ways the film’s story mimics the story of  Swan Lake. Nina does not have an evil sister, but she does have another more dangerous side to her that seems to appear the more highly strung she becomes. Even in the early scenes of the the film, Nina imagines seeing another version of herself as she goes about her daily life. It could also be argued that Mila Kunis is playing the Black Swan character in the film as Nina becomes convinced that Lily (Kunis) is trying to steal her role. It’s never made fully clear whether Lily is actually trying to sabotage Nina’s part in the play, or if it is purely in Nina’s imagination.

The casting of Winona Ryder as the older dancer that Nina is basically replacing is perfect as the part rings true. Ryder herself is no longer able to play the roles that she used to in the film industry, and younger actresses like Portman  are getting the notoriety that she used to have.

Black Swan is a disturbing film and could definitely be classed as a psychological thriller. There are a lot of things going on in the film where it is unclear if they are real or imagined. For example, Nina has marks on her back which get bigger and more severe as the film progresses, but then at other times they seem to have vanished completely. The film plays with the audience’s perceptions of reality. You’re never sure if what you’re being shown is what is really going on or if we are being shown what is in Nina’s disturbed mind.

Dir: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder

• A skilled diver (Richard Roxburgh) and his team become trapped in an underwater labyrinth.
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• A college student’s roommate has a sinister side.
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• An elite hit man (Jason Statham) teaches his trade to an apprentice (Ben Foster).
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Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office

• Yogi, Boo Boo and Ranger Smith must thwart the mayor’s plan to sell Jellystone Park.
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• An Australian actor tries to help England’s Prince Albert overcome a speech impediment.
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• A ballerina (Natalie Portman) forges an unusual relationship with a sultry newcomer (Mila Kunis).
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• The spoiled heir (Seth Rogen) to a newspaper fortune becomes a costumed crimefighter.
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• A teenager enlists the aid of a boozy, trigger-happy lawman to find her father’s killer.
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• An elite hit man (Jason Statham) teaches his trade to an apprentice (Ben Foster).
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• A look at the early years of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward and his brother who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s
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• Two lifelong friends (Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher) try not to let sex ruin their relationship.
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• An American priest travels to Italy to study at an exorcism school.
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• Before a presentation, a man sees the wife of his best friend and business partner with another guy.
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Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office

The Housemaid is a remake of a 1960 film, both made in Korea, both with the same name. The original was a hit, both with audiences and with critics. It is now considered a masterpiece of its genre although I’m not sure if it’s to the degree of Citizen Kane or more to the degree of Head. Kim Ki-Young, the director of the original, brought a different aesthetic to Korean film then had been seen before. His work influenced many of the big Korean directors known today such as Park Chan-Wook and Bong Joon-Ho. I have not seen the original but if it is as good as I’m hearing it is, I can’t believe that news of this remake was met with much applause. And, after seeing the remake, unless the original had as big of a question mark at the end of it, I also can’t believe that this film will make many of the fans of the original film very happy.

Eun-yi (Jeon Do-youn) is a young woman who is taken from her job in a noodle shop and hired as an upper class family housemaid to take care of the house and the family’s small daughter, Hanyeo (Ahn Seo-hyun) and very pregnant wife, Hae-ra (Seo Woo). There is an older housemaid, Byung-sik (Yoon Yeo-Jung) who chose, hired and is teaching Eun-yi the ropes while simultaneously hoping and strategizing for her to fail. The head of the household is Hoon (played by Lee Jung-jae). He has been brought up in a privileged family and has never had anything denied from him. As such he quickly takes advantage of his position and slips into the new housemaid’s bed. From there the story, as any like this tends to, gets complicated.

Most of this film plays like any “up-stairs, down-stairs”, the rich vs. the poor story. All the power and opulence that those with money can flounce about is shown here. The cars they drive, the vacation homes they spend time in, the large estate they live on, the wine they drink and even the way they drink it, all go to show just how much they are at a disconnect from the women who prepare their meals and raise their children. The typical rules of what is right and wrong do not apply to them because they were not raised with such ideas. The thoughts of bumping someone off who might be causing you a bit of inconvenience or paying for someone’s silence and cooperation is as common to their thinking as breathing itself. It really is not a new thought to be placed on film, and here, not much new is said. The only person in this family who is not yet affected by these paralyzing notions is the young daughter, who speaks like a grown woman and is the most level headed of the entire bunch. The little actress who played her is amazing to watch, mostly because such a big performance comes from where it is not expected.

Everything was going pretty much according to plan then it was as if the director could not figure out how to wrap this tale up and said, “Screw it!” Truly it is disheartening that he did so. He took what could have been a solid little drama and ruined it by making the ending the only thing I can really focus on. It’s like being on a date with a good-looking, articulate, witty and fun-spirited person who has a mole on his face with a crop of 4-inch hairs growing out of it. No matter how much you want to and how hard you try, your focus always comes back to the mole. As I left the building after watching this film, the ending was the only thing that I or anyone else in my party could talk about, and not in a “Wasn’t that awesome!” way, more in the “What the heck was that?” kinda way. Even now, rethinking through the last two scenes in the film, the bile builds in me because what was not an artsy film took an artsy turn without rhyme or reason, and so the rest of the picture just pales into the background. All the solid performances by the entire cast, all the great shots accentuating the majesty of the set that they built to film in, all the brilliance of the style and look the cinematographer was able to achieve, get relegated to footnotes.

My reaction may be a bit too much, but to me a solid finish is everything. You have to bring the story home, finish with conviction. If not then everything that has come before it means nothing. Conversely, a weak story may be raised to a good story by an amazing ending. The problem with people is that they’d rather be happy then good. To analyze is to lose respect, or awe, for. The more you learn, the less you know. Never dress up for a food fight. Handle yourself with your head; handle others with your heart. Actions speak louder then words but motives can out scream actions every time. Behind every good man is someone telling him the answers. If you really want to understand me, please hear what I’m not saying, what I may never be able to say. See? Kinda crap, huh?

• An Australian actor tries to help England’s Prince Albert overcome a speech impediment.
  #
• A ballerina (Natalie Portman) forges an unusual relationship with a sultry newcomer (Mila Kunis).
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• Before a presentation, a man sees the wife of his best friend and business partner with another guy.
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• Yogi, Boo Boo and Ranger Smith must thwart the mayor’s plan to sell Jellystone Park.
  #
• The spoiled heir (Seth Rogen) to a newspaper fortune becomes a costumed crimefighter.
  #
• Two lifelong friends (Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher) try not to let sex ruin their relationship.
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• The Focker and the Byrnes families brace themselves for the arrival of a baby.
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Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office

• A teenager enlists the aid of a boozy, trigger-happy lawman to find her father’s killer.
  #
• The Focker and the Byrnes families brace themselves for the arrival of a baby.
  #
• An Australian actor tries to help England’s Prince Albert overcome a speech impediment.
  #
• A ballerina (Natalie Portman) forges an unusual relationship with a sultry newcomer (Mila Kunis).
  #
• Before a presentation, a man sees the wife of his best friend and business partner with another guy.
  #
• Yogi, Boo Boo and Ranger Smith must thwart the mayor’s plan to sell Jellystone Park.
  #
• The spoiled heir (Seth Rogen) to a newspaper fortune becomes a costumed crimefighter.
  #
• Two lifelong friends (Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher) try not to let sex ruin their relationship.
  #
• A look at the early years of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward and his brother who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s
  #

Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office

• Before a presentation, a man sees the wife of his best friend and business partner with another guy.
  #
• The spoiled heir (Seth Rogen) to a newspaper fortune becomes a costumed crimefighter.
  #
• The son (Garrett Hedlund) of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is pulled into the cyberworld of Tron.
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Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office

• A ballerina (Natalie Portman) forges an unusual relationship with a sultry newcomer (Mila Kunis).
  #
• An Australian actor tries to help England’s Prince Albert overcome a speech impediment.
  #
• The son (Garrett Hedlund) of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is pulled into the cyberworld of Tron.
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• A rising country-music songwriter (Hedlund) sparks a romance with a fallen star (Paltrow).
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• Two knights (Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman) escort an accused witch to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual in the hope of ending the pestilence that is ravaging the country.
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• Yogi, Boo Boo and Ranger Smith must thwart the mayor’s plan to sell Jellystone Park.
  #
• The Focker and the Byrnes families brace themselves for the arrival of a baby.
  #
• A teenager enlists the aid of a boozy, trigger-happy lawman to find her father’s killer.
  #
• A look at the early years of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward and his brother who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s
  #

Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office