It's obvious that this is not going to be a happy story. There are no surprises, there is no sugar-coating, just the relentless tension of watching an uptight woman-child lose what little mental stability she has. This is a trip into the lacuna of obsession that will speak to you if you've ever been there or have watched someone you love lose themselves in their myopic pursuit of perfection. But you don't need to have been there to empathize with Nina, you just have to be willing to accept that some people go cuckoo when their self-worth has been built upon something as precarious as the approval required to succeed as a professional artist.

What I love is that this movie doesn't glorify Nina's self-destruction, it just shows you in "full-frontal" style brutality what it's like to be in her (toe)shoes. At least that's what I got from watching it three times.

Don't write Black Swan off because it's one of those "arty" movies. You don't need to be "highbrow" or able to deconstruct every scene to enjoy how beautifully done it was either. Think of it as Fear & Loathing with ballerinas and no attorneys. FYI, If you're one of those "practical" people that has a hard time understanding situations that are foreign to you, you might want to move along as this probably won't seem realistic to you.