Pleasant and Involving First Film by Daldry

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2013)

Nobody would understand better what it's like to sort of skirt the line between 'manly' and 'puff' better than Stephen Daldry, who goes by 'gay' despite being happily married to a woman and father to a daughter. He's as gay as he is straight, and in reality, it's like this: he likes what he likes. This film seems an extension of that: the lead (Jamie Bell, in a wonderfully nuanced young adult performance), is just a boy with a lot of energy who finds he's better at channeling it via dance than boxing (as his father would prefer). He's widower father and older brother are striking against the coal mines that won't pay them enough wages and you see a struggle as they grasp to their identity of what it is to be male. (if you can't feed your family, you don't feel like much of a man, do you?). Julie Walters delivers a fine performance as the dance teacher that sees Billy's potential and helps him realize it. Moments that could have been stomach-churning manage to go by like rocks skipping a lake. Transformations don't exactly ring true, but you find yourself more relieved and besides, with what ends up at stake, who has time for such 'trivial' matters?