1. First thing that I have to note about the movie is that Natalie Portman was the BUSINESS! Not only was her acting in this movie the best it has ever been...EVER, but she was ten times better than everyone else in the film. She totally deserves every honor and award that comes her way for this role. No kidding. She completely blew me away. She did the most intense face acting I've seen in years. It was all eyeballs for her. You could totally read her character in her eyeballs and it was hella scary.
2. As you may have heard from different sources or perhaps picked up from the trailer, the movie is scary. It's a thriller, but it also has a bit of a horror edge to it. And I can't lie, there were a couple of times that I jumped and even a few times I slid down in my chair with my hands trying to cover my eyes and ears at the same time. But, despite it being scary, there were people laughing in the theater that I saw it in, and I've yet to figure out if the parts that people were laughing at were actually funny or if there were just jokesters in the audience. It just seemed bizarre to be laughing really hard one moment and then squirming in your chair the next. Maybe it is just me but it didn't seem like it was meant to be that type of movie.
3. Mila Kunis is awesome...but not in this movie. I love her and she is a friend in my head but I'm not sure if this was her role. I feel like there may have been better picks for her character. It just didn't add up for me and I found it to be a tad bit disappointing.
4. Why was Winona Ryder in this movie?
5. I rarely take much notice to sound mixing and editing, but I def felt that this movie had some of the best. It set the mood and put everyone on edge. One of the key sounds I noticed that really got my skin crawling was every time Nina (Natalie Portman) would stretch before rehearsals, you could hear her bones crack. It was so gross.
6. I totally thought that I could never see Vincent Cassel (Oceans Twelve) ever again and not see past his obvious Frenchiness, but he totally pulled it out on this one. He really sucked me into his character and his role in the ballet company. This was def a promising performance for him as an actor in the US. I think people will be more open seeing him again. Probably, still only as a villain or bad guy, but tis the life of an actor.
7. Can you imagine how this makes most professional ballerinas feel now? Everyone is going to be scared of them from now on. Before, they used to walk around like leggy flamingos, with gross feet but now you're gonna wonder if they have an inner psycho lurking underneath all that spandex and tulle. Every time you hear someone tell you they are in a ballet company, you're gonna be like, 'how do you feel about birds?'
