Black Swan vs. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

            Natalie Portman is an amazing actress to say the least. She’s been an amazing actress ever since her first role as Mathilda in “Leon: The Professional,” when she was just twelve! Portman played probably one of the more interesting characters in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, portrayed Jackie Kennedy with absolute perfection, and has done a ton of other amazing roles. As if that wasn’t enough, Natalie Portman also graduated from Harvard and speaks several languages.

            Okay, now here’s where I get into my possibly controversial opinion. I was not really a fan of the movie “Black Swan” or Natalie Portman’s role in it. As you probably know, “Black Swan” is a 2010 movie about a ballet dancer who goes insane and is trying to be a perfect ballerina. It was a critical and commercial success, and Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in it (she also meet her husband, the French dancer Benjamin Millepied, while working on the movie too).

            “Black Swan” is one of those movies that when I watch it I think to myself, “Yeah, I can see why it’s so critically acclaimed, but it isn’t doing much for me.” Natalie Portman did a ton of training for her role as the mentally spiraling ballerina Nina Sayers, so I can totally understand why she won the Oscar for this role. But I didn’t really get involved in the story. I honestly felt like Portman’s character could have been more two-dimensional, and that her journey could have been more interesting and less straightforward. I’m not going to post spoilers here, but I thought the ending was actually a little anti-climatic. I don’t hate the movie, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

            Also as an aside, I honestly feel that a lot of men liked the movie strictly because of the kissing scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis (both of whom ironically starred in movies about sleeping with men they weren’t actually dating).

            Now for the second part of my controversial opinion. I honestly think that “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,” a 2007 movie also starring Natalie Portman, was a lot better. And I also think that her performance was better in this than in “Black Swan,” or at the very least was a performance aiding in the portrayal of a more complex character.

            In case you haven’t heard of “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,” it’s a modern day fairy tale that tells the story of Natalie Portman’s character Molly Mahoney, a young woman in her early twenties who was once a piano prodigy. Currently she works for the enigmatic and loveable Mr. Magorium (played by Dustin Hoffman), a man above the age of two hundred who runs a magical toy store. Molly is a young woman who is lacking self-confidence and is unsure of herself; she dreams of composing her masterpiece but wonders is she’s truly living up to the promise of her childhood dreams and potential. Meanwhile, the ancient but ever youthful Mr. Magorium says that he’s about to die, and wants Molly to take over the magical toy store for him.

            As a side note, the late Randy Pausch, a computer science professor and author of “The Last Lecture,” mentioned in his book that he also loved “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.”

            Now, I know that Natalie Portman worked her butt off for “Black Swan,” but I think her character in “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” went through a much better arch. Nina Sayers’s only goal is to be the best ballerina possible; while that’s a great goal, I never really felt like she grew that much as a person. Her character tries to become more adult-like and less child-like, but I felt she was kind of self-absorbed could have gone a lot farther. But Molly Mahoney, in a movie that is unapologetically meant for children, grows more as a person, especially as an adult. She gains so much self-confidence, and even before that is filled with more of a personality and with a ton of love and empathy for those around her, especially Mr. Magorium.

            There are also little touches in Natalie Portman’s performance as Molly Mahoney. We see her throughout the movie playing with her hands, moving them like she’s playing a piano. And we can tell by her facial expressions that she’s imagining the sounds in her head, possibly trying to mentally compose.

            So yeah, I greatly prefer the movie aimed primarily at kids called “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” to the critically acclaimed Oscar winner “Black Swan.” I thought among other things that Natalie Portman’s performance was better in the former. Both ironically had lead characters who were artists struggling in their craft, one being a piano player and composer, the other a ballerina. And I thought Molly Mahoney was a much better character, someone I wanted to root for more than Nina Sayers. So if you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out.

Note: If you'd like to check out my fantasy novel in progress "The Princess of Infinite Tomorrows," check it out at https://princessofinfinitetomorrows.blogspot.com/.