Black Swan and Plot - relations to Sci-fi and Fantasy

I did not like the movie Black Swan. While I thought the filming of it, the music, the acting, the visuals - All that was exquisite - I did not find the plot gripping at all after watching the movie. Almost everything that happened to  the main character, Nina, I found to be explained away by the fact that she was unstable and had been for some time, and so was her mother (maybe even more so). Had this movie been about how someone like Nina was affected by her environment to the point of spiraling to death, it would have been more understandable - but the movie I'm sure was not intended as such, nor filmed as such.

So if Nina's mental state and how it was affected by her surroundings, then what was it? As this story hinges on the ballet story of the same name, it had a great deal to do with the contradictions of being innocent and...not innocent. I feel that while Nina's gentle and kind demeanor can be seen as a mask for a darker side, which is relate-able, I feel that her instability overshadows the message the movie is trying to send: That it is so incredibly contradictory to be both the 'black' and 'white' swans that it leads to a self destruction if a balance is pursued to perfection (pressured also by influences outside the self). Her very instability then, means that she is already vulnerable - I feel that all of us are subject to these outside pressures and internal conflicts enough without needing to be equated to someone who is spiraling, in an unhealthy environment. It was totally not surprising to me that she murdered (or at least hurt) someone and killed herself. I don't mean to say I predicted it, but I was not surprised. Her character's backstory almost demanded that she spiraled further and probably would have had she never been in that exact situation to begin with. For this point, Nina is not a character that truly relates the message of the story.

(I know this is taking a while to get to Sci-Fi and fantasy but bear with me)

Now this brings into question, what was Nina's purpose? Obviously, she was portrayed as the perfect white swan - innocence in every sense of the word. But in that is my other problem. I don't believe she is a true representation of innocence. If, as an adult, one is required to look at the world in almost a childlike state of naivety to be 'innocent' then only those who are not matured can be so. Do not misunderstand, I am not saying that when a person is grown up, that they are unkind and callous. What I am implying is that this portrayal of innocence is not reflective of how humanity is shown. Innocence is not blindly ignoring the world around you, nor being subservient to everyone regardless of their actions. Innocence is more trait that is built, though small children have innocence of a different kind. Children have an innocence built around their true ignorance of experience which is not the same as innocence built upon experience. I don't think I can explain innocence any further, as it is something that requires more thought to expand on, and this post is not about it. That being said, I do know/feel that innocence is not what is shown in that movie. If it was, what that implies about people who act in that manner is extremely patronizing and insulting.

Now is the bridge point. To use an metaphor, Nina as a character in Black Swan, is like trying to see a black piece of paper in a dark room. In terms of the story being told, Nina does not stand out as someone to convey the message to the viewer. She is an unstable person in a movie filled with equally unstable/bad people. This movie is trying to talk about innocence and having a dark side, along with seeking perfection, affects people, there is no one who relates this with people who are not unstable. The struggles in the movie are felt by every single human being (reconciling with oneself, seeking or understanding perfection etc.) but this movie takes it to such an extreme as to be disconnected with what actually occurs within people. To get back to my metaphor - Seeing Nina in the midst of such bad circumstances we have no way of separating her from the rest and relating to her. She is totally a product of her own instability and how that instability was exacerbated by the ugliness shown by people around her.

And here we get to Science Fiction and Fantasy. The best of these two genre's are seen when it allows the reader/viewer/player to relate to the characters and story. There has to be a means of connection between the fantastical occurring in these stories, and the reality of the reader otherwise the story is beyond/behind what is the reality of human interaction. Good SFF (Science Fiction and Fantasy) happens when realistically portrayed interaction is placed in a fantastical scenario. I believe it is one of the strengths of SFF to be able to put humans (or characters with humanesque traits so as to be relate-able) in imaginary scenarios to better understand ourselves and the world around us; to be able to explore certain questions that may not be readily discussed in the present. That satellites were first talked about in sci-fi first, demonstrates the ability of the genre to introduce new thought that can serve to inspire real change/discussion. SFF at it's worst, does (among other things) what I feel Black Swan does; Bad SFF has characters and stories entirely explained away by other variables that overshadow the intended message. I suppose this is true of every story, but for the purposes of this post I will contain it to SFF. When characters are explained away by magic/ideals (see "A Tough Guide to Fantasyland" under colour coding) the story is bland. An example > He is evil because he is the evil god (Fantasy) > He is evil because he is the Intergalactic Emporer (Sci-Fi). Again, good SFF should be able to realistically portray human interaction (whether on an individual level or macro level) in order to relate to the reader. People look to SFF to tell them a story of people existing in imaginary situations, not people who are explained away entirely by certain traits (unstable, evil, magical, elvish, alien).

As a writer I hope to take realistic interaction into my stories so that people are drawn into them, and are not confused because the message is in conflict with the characters and interactions portrayed.

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Add on > After 2nd comment

After thinking more about what I had to say about Black Swan I feel my main concern about her instability getting in the way of the story is another way of saying that Nina had an almost complete lack of agency. Her death at the end I feel was a symptom of her situation rather than a personal choice. I got the impression from how her character was portrayed that her childhood had been incredibly damaged by her mother, and that her mother continued to skew Nina's life after adulthood. Her mother had been in ballet and I could easily see her forcing Nina into ballet. From there I got the impression that Nina was just playing the part of a puppet, her drive for perfection the symptom of being led by others. Even at the point in time where the movie takes place this I feel is true. Her 'choices' to indulge in the hedonistic life were not really hers to make as it was her instructor who was pressuring her into being the 'perfect black swan' From this I feel that the film was trying to  portray the Swan Lake story (sorry for mistaking it for the 'black swan story') and that that story requires a participant who has the ability to be conflicted by such decisions. It felt like this movie set up a character like Nina as a puppet and then tried to tell a story that then ignored her lack of agency as if it were unimportant. To better illustrate my point; The movie 'A Beautiful Mind' is also about a person who is remarkably unstable (indeed he is actually mentally ill). While he has no choice in the fact that he has an actual mental condition that actively affects his mind the movie is entirely about his struggle to choose how he himself is to live. In a way 'A Beautiful Mind' is another version of 'Black Swan.' 'Black Swan' then, seemed to ignore the history of Nina that it built. She must have been battling with her cruel situation of not being sure whether or not her own decisions were truly her own. That I think is a much better story. That being said, 'Black Swan' seemed to be filmed about her course to death rather than her agency (or lack of agency in this case).