In Hollywood, we are making 30 cents to the dollar.

Nina is a woman trapped in the mindset of a young girl.

She sleeps in a pink room full of stuffed animals where her mother tucks her in every night.

Her voice is fluttery, high-pitched, and as wispy as the diaphanous tulle of a tutu.

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The film begins in a dream world of a lone Sayers performing.

On the subway to rehearsal, she looks at herself in a smudged windowher reflection a blank blur.

These moments of mistaken recognition, or lack of recognition, recurrently plague Nina throughout the film.

Aronofsky exaggerates these moments of misrecognition with the motif of mirrors throughout the film.

The movement is menacing in its restraint.

Shes lazily lithe, exuding a sexual confidence that Nina does not yet know how to harness.

In Aronofskys film Portman, too, comes into acting adulthood.

The only person standing in your way is you, Ninas punishing director Thomas reminds her.