Pursue your dreams

Rating: 9/10 (13 December 2005)

Stephen Daldry has directed an inspiring movie that needs to be ranged in among the highest ever achievements of British cinema. The following lines will outline my approach to a movie that features one of the strongest and most compelling messages and some of the finest character portrayals ever to be seen on screen. Thus this movie follows the premises of classic British gems like "Kes" or "Ratcatcher", thereby paving the way for modern British drama as implemented in "Dear Frankie", which is similar in taste and tune and as appreciated as "Billy Elliot".
Firstly, the story. What I have realized in the course of analyzing and rating British movies of whatever period is a marked tendency of directors to refrain from American defaults such as unrealistic and boastful stories and lavish applications of visual and special effects. The strengths of British movies rather lie in subtle and authentic elaborations on individual struggles and honest depictions of real challenges and hardships. Billy Elliot is an apt example for this premise. The way Daldry elaborates on this basic concept makes his adaptation of the script a unique transformation of the aforementioned features. Billy Elliot's story is elementary and lacks tangly implications, but that is its strength. It does not need terrific special effects to create the story of a young boy finding out who he is and what his talents are, thus delivering a sincere message everyone will be able to identify with. Billy's story serves as the archetypical struggle of finding your place in the world and accepting yourself as the first lesson of getting along with the challenges of life. The movie then acquires its supreme quality by elaborating on Billy's developments, the hardships they imply and the frictions they cause within his family.
Secondly, the characters. Starting from this firm basis, the emphases of movies belonging to this genre are put upon individual characters. Here it takes genuine and decent personalities to match the challenges of portraying both the cursory characteristics and the emotional implications of the key characters. The main challenge at the very outset was to find a kid from the Newcastle area with suitable attributes, the right age and the dancing skills necessary to fulfill the movie's requirements. Jamie Bell was cast among two thousand other kids his age. It became very clear that he was the perfect guy to play Billy. It requires a lot of character and endurance to go through the training necessary for this movie, and even more to dance in front of so many people. Jamie is able to make us feel his character's passion and his fervor never to give up on his dreams. His performance is outstanding, he acts confidently like an experienced actor and makes you forget that he is a newcomer.
What puts this movie above the ordinary is the quality of the other characters. Billy's family is a family almost torn apart by the death of his mother, which left his father emotionally crippled and his brother unable to take any form of responsibility. At the very beginning you have Billy's father (played by veteran Gary Lewis) as a flat and inapproachable man who seems to be able to beat the living daylights out of Billy once he realizes his son's preference for ballet, which is perfectly unmanly according to him. Billy's brother, Tony, is introduced as a somewhat foolish guy whose entire interest circles around the mining strike. The atmosphere within the family is bleak and emotionally drained.
Billy is isolated and yearning for love and appreciation. He visits his mother's grave and takes care of his grandma. He seems, right at the beginning, to be the only one who really takes responsibility despite the hardships of life. The striking thing about him is his determination and sturdiness when it comes to pursuing his dancing courses, which is a remarkable feature for an eleven year old boy, especially when you consider a) his dad's obvious contempt and b) feeling like a sissy himself at the outset. The movie builds on this general strength of Billy, which can be seen in his eyes and is reflected in his eagerness to proceed.
As the movie continues the emotional challenges for all the actors slowly but surely grow. Some sequences are stirring in their simplicity and heart-breaking in their subtle sincerity. The bond Billy establishes with his dancing teacher; the scene when she reads the letter of Billy's mom; his father's stand against his own union when it comes to go to the mines again; Tony's change from a frigid dummy to a caring brother. The scene when Tony runs after his father to the mines, and then both men tumble while embracing each other, sobbing in despair, is one of the strongest scenes I have ever seen. An adult man, father of two sons, breaking down and crying "We're done, son! We're done" is just smashing, showing the despair and the bottled-up emotions. The changes that the characters undergo manifest themselves in this scene. Thus the characters become even more vivid and make Billy's family as authentic as the movie requires.
The dancing is wonderful. The movie is funny as well and made me laugh several times. The language is rather vulgar and the characters very often engage in streams of curses, but this again strengthens the authenticity of the performances. The setting is Northern England in 1984, during the great mining strikes, which plays a significant part in the story itself.
Let yourself be inspired by the pervasive message of finding your talents and staying true to yourself. Enjoy the emotionally stirring scenes which will make your heart run over with emotions. Watch out for the unique soundtrack and Billy's outstanding dancing performances.
You will love "Billy Elliot" for what it has accomplished. It is indeed one of the finest pieces of British cinema, a masterpiece of lasting quality.