There are many things this film is not about...so look to the soul.

Rating: 10/10 (29 July 2007)

Set amid, not so much against, a backdrop of Margaret Thatcher's war with the striking miners of 1984, this film is not about the strike even though it is evident and nearly dominant in much of the movie. Billy's father, his brother, his deceased mother, his friends, his teacher, his town--all play major roles that form the body of this cinematic triumph--and yet the film is not really about any or all of them either. Nor is it really about Billy. Those elements and more make up the story, but even the story is not what this film is about.
It is not about The Dance, but the dance is what lifts Billy to that ethereal place, akin perhaps to an akashic journey, wherein he comes to understand his own soul and enables his hard, basic, mining community to taste and savor the kiss of supreme triumph, the achievement of knowing who you truly are and knowing that you truly are a thing of glory...in those magical moments of flight. And therein resides what Billy Elliot is about.
If you haven't seen it, please do. See it alone. See it with someone you love. See it again.
This movie should have been nominated for and should have won more awards than it did. How could Jamie Bell not have been nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe and more? This masterpiece did receive a lot of recognition, I will readily admit, but one suspects that the politics of that generic "Hollywood" drove others to glory instead.
No matter. Billy Elliot will not mind; it will just live on, enriching souls.