Sentimental and cliched

Rating: 1/10 (20 July 2003)

British films seem to follow a set pattern of late. Or at least the ones that perform well outside of Britain. They either feature actors that couldn't even become stars on British t.v. pretending to be gangsters but coming across more as if they're starring in a bad episode of Minder (i.e. Guy Ritchie films) or they're heartwarming tales where the working classes find a talent to help them overcome their poverty (Full Monty) or they're kitchen sink dramas full of misery (any Mike Leigh film with the exception of Topsy Turvey). Billy Elliot ignores the Guy Ritchie route and instead seeks to combine aspects of Mike Leigh and The Full Monty. Here we're presented with a young working class lad who learns to dance in order to escape small town life. Trouble is Full Monty had jokes and Mike Leigh films have exceptional actors, here we get neither. Everything about Billy Elliot is cloying and manipulative, the scenes of the miners strikes add nothing to the movie and appear to be there just to add a weighty backdrop to the movie. In a film like Brassed Off the miners strike was used to deepen the emotional core of the movie, here it's just something that's there for a feeble tug at the heart strings. Everything about this film appears to have been lifted from a better movie. It's a shame that a talented actor such as Gary Lewis had to be involved with this nonsense. And it would have been nice if the lead actor had some talent whether it be for acting or dancing, Jamie Bell appears to have neither, he is the most annoying juvenile screen lead in a long time and hopping about like he has a crab in his underwear every ten minutes does not a dancer make. Sugary and insulting.