Her fouettes are effortless and precise. Her piques are sharp and exact. Her jette leaps are extended and graceful. Everything about her is perfect, but this perfection is what ultimately pushes Nina to her breaking point.

“Black Swan” goes inside the world of professional ballet by showing audiences Nina’s struggle to the top. Nina, played by Natalie Portman, has been with her New York City ballet company for years, but she’s never held the position of prima ballerina. All changes though with the company’s production of the classic ballet Swan Lake.

After what Nina feels is a disastrous audition, the company director assigns Nina to her dream role: Swan Queen, which is divided into two sub roles, the pure and perfect white swan and the black swan–darker, edgier and controlled by emotion.

Nina is the ideal ballerina for the white swan, but the black swan is almost too much of a stretch for her. However, Lily (Mila Kunis), the new ballerina in the company, would be perfect to play the black swan, and the company director constantly reminds Nina of this.

What should be a time of joy and celebration for Nina quickly turns into quite the opposite as the stress and competition for the role starts consuming her mind and taking over her life. When it all becomes too much for her, Nina begins to lose track of what is reality and what is her imagination.

Director Darren Aronofsky, who directed “The Wrestler,” crafts a beautifully chilling story with “Black Swan.” He is able to capture the pure innocence and beauty of ballet while mixing in its darker secrets that most people don’t consider.

Portman is also superb as Nina. She brings a frailness to the character while at the same time portraying a constant sense of anxiety. Portman is able to make Nina seem sad and almost pathetic as she scrambles to keep her life from shattering. However by the end of the movie, Portman has transformed Nina into something completely different: a girl willing to do anything and everything to stay on top.

“Black Swan” isn’t just a darker and more serious version of “Center Stage” or “Step Up.” The film takes you deeper inside the lives and emotions of the girls dedicated to becoming the prima ballerina, and by combining chilling and almost scary twists with the pristine image of dance, “Black Swan” creates a whole new name for dance films.