Birds of Paradise

Reads as a cliche, that attempts to be an original. The attempt succeeded, in humanising the expected villains of the story. It examines the full variety of motivations of goal driven people and you find yourself rooting for people to find the best version of themself. It manages to reflect who we are, when we are in similar situations. It is not a fairytale in the end, and realistically dark when it should be.

Expect a rich kid poor kid story that is realistic.

This movie starts out promising, but from "save the last dance" to "black swan", it will remind you of all those scenes, some so alike it's not even funny. The cast is bland, the acting is bland, there are no great dance scenes as they are almost poorly filmed or cut. The end kinda saves it, and so does the contrived friendship between the two main portagonists, but that's about it. Watchable.

No pun intended - or maybe not the way you think. On the other hand, if you've read a few of my reviews, you may have already guessed that I sometimes mean multiple things with what I write. In this case, it is about the numbness ballet dancers go through (especially with their feet), but also the numbness some viewers may feel with movies about ballet.

We have seen a few of them - and this may not have too many new things that it can introduce. But the interplay between the two main characters, their relationship that is not entirely clear, but also the visual interpretation of certain things, does give it an edge.

Not the best movie ever, but a really nice effort and really well acted too. The story and the amount of passion thrown at us is really something in a good sense. Still you have to suspend your disbelief and fill in some gaps to be thoroughly entertained. Yes the movie does not give you all the answers - but you can deduct from some of the behavior what it tries to tell you.

Criticism and all that included of course. Passion and fanaticism go hand in hand sometimes! Not to mention expectations from the outside ... whatever is your driving motor ... and whatever is inside your head, for better or worse.

Competition brings out the best in some people... but it can destroy others.

'Black Cygnet'.

The story of this movie does not exist, there are some moments of astonishment but nothing more.

There is no story to follow, there is nothing to rely on to make a plot twist, turning them into moments of wonder, which cause curiosity and are the highlight of the script. There is never a development of each character, there are many characters that end up discarding and the end is left to interpretation. However, there are things to highlight such as the performances, especially that of Kristine Froseth, the choreography and the coordination are good.

It's a shame that the talent of those involved is wasted by a script so lazy and boring that it says absolutely nothing.