Jamie Bell and Julie Walters show us a very British vision of the world of dance.

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2009)

Billy Elliot is a film for those people who have faced or face problems in choosing what is good for them.Young minds are at a loss to decide for themselves as they have neither knowledge nor experience to opt for whatever that is good for them.For them, it is not so easy to make a choice as there are times when they have to take into consideration the feeling of others around them.This is some kind of a universal phenomenon but for most young boys it is sometimes difficult to choose dance instead of boxing.This might be because boxing is a symbol of strong male character whereas dance is mostly associated with feminine world.This is precisely the case in the life of our film's young protagonist named Billy Elliot.With this film British director Stephen Daldry has succeeded in revealing the feminine aspects of young boys. The best lesson one can learn from this film is that one should strive to achieve what one has in mind instead of crumbling under pressure. Billy Elliot is a fine film which will surely appeal to all but it has also its share of some minor glitches.The fact that it is too British might be seen as an impediment for those viewers who crave for universal themes without any notion of national identity.