Over-hyped but a low-key effective story about being true to ones self

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2003)

While his father and older brother are involved in the miner's strikes, Billy is still at school. When the ballet class has to share a room with Billy's boxing club he becomes interested in the class and joins it secretly. When his family find out they go spare and stop him going, but Billy meets secretly with his teacher Mrs Wilkinson and continues. Eventually Mrs Wilkinson decides Billy may be good enough for auditioning for the Royal Ballet School in London  but how can he do it without his father's permission?
It seems that any British film that isn't rubbish gets hyped up and spread all over the place like the new Messiah. Billy Elliot was one such film and it suffers a little from the weight of expectation this puts on it's shoulders. Like many recent British hits, this is a low-key story that is a slow burn rather than a Hollywood `wow' film that needs to be hyped up because it's all about spectacle and not story. Here the focus is all on the simple theme of `to one's self be true' (just like Babe!). The plot develops slowly, sounds simple but encompasses the miner's strikes etc in compliment to the central tale.
The strength of the film is not in the telling but in the characters. They are allowed time to develop and they change in ways that would be comical if they were just one-dimensional but, because they are fuller people we believe them and are taken in by them. It's not flawless and some of the characters are a little weak  Billy's cross-dressing friend is a little too heavy in the film's `be yourself' message.
The acting is all very good. Bell is excellent as Billy  bringing out the anger, freedom and bashfulness. Lewis as his father and Draven as the brother are better in some ways as they must keep their emotions just visible under masculinity, only letting them out occasionally. www is OK and does her usual working class routine that she does so well, but Bell is easily the best, holding our attention effortlessly.
Overall this film suffered from being overhyped to the point that most people expected to be totally blown away. It isn't like that  it's more a slow, simple story that will involve you bit by bit so that you're fully involved for the low-key emotional finish.