Dance, don't walk to Billy Elliot

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2000)

There are times when the world of film delivers a genuine gem. There are times when a story is told that can touch and move you to places that you either haven't been or needed to go without the tricks or traps of Hollywood manipulation. "Billy Elliot" is that gem. It is a slice of life with the beauty of youth, the strife of real life, the bond of family, the blessing of talent and the prize in a soaring spirit. The title character is an 11-year-old boy (the amazing Jamie Bell) in a British mining town during the 1984 strikes. His father and brother are part of the strike and he is left to watch his aging grandmother after school as the men spend the days at the picket line. His only respite is the gym in the center of the village in which he takes his grandfather's boxing gloves and goes, mostly unsuccessfully into pee wee bouts. One afternoon Mrs. Wilkinson's (Walters) ballet class moves into the gym to utilize space and help pay the rent. Drawn like a moth to a flame, the young boy slowly begins to work his way into the class. The boys father (a wonderfully effective Gary Lewis) soon discovers that his son is not boxing and the traditional gender roles and masculine mining town mentality and ego are played to aplomb. When he forbids Billy to dance, Mrs. Wilkinson trains him on the sly with the plan to take him to London to audition for the Royal Ballet School. Eventually this is discovered as Billy misses his audition because his brother Tony (Jamie Draven) has been arrested during the strikes. As time and the strike go on it is the scenes in which young Billy rebels against the stereotypical dancer as a poof by being exactly who he is. One of the finest moments comes as he dances purposefully in front of and all around his bewildered father after having been caught training a friend in the gym one night. This is the turnaround and the father is shaken into realizing that Billy has promise. What follows is the awakenings of fate, life, family and dreams. A beautiful story with affecting performances and a lead that is so graceful and enchanting a dancer, this is a film that cannot and should not be missed. Rated R for language, it would otherwise be the type of film that would rule come Oscar time. I will be personally upset if it doesn't win that sort of recognition as it is the most deserved of the honor in years.(A++)