Average

Rating: 1/10 (29 September 2000)

Lee Hall has written acclaimed stage plays, radio plays and TV movies. So how has his talent transferred to the big screen? If you are in the right frame of mind then his film is a feel-good breath of fresh air. But you have to be willing to ignore some major flaws.
The central premise of a boy discovering dance with the coal dispute of 1984 in the background is a good one. The strike gives an original twist to what is a simple bog-standard rites-of-passage story but it doesn't really complement the main story. There are a couple of times where the strike affects what Billy wants; the first time to do with the audition and his brother is unconvincing and strange. The second time to do with the audition and his father is brilliant but then goes nowhere as it has no consequences which is simply unbelievable.
For the rest of the film the strike seems more like extraneous conflict to bring in action when Billy learning dancing gets too boring. There were lots of conflicts relating to Billy and his relationships they could have used instead which would have kept the film more focussed but instead they decided to keep the characterisations shallow and go for the big irrelevant event.
In fact, we don't really get to know any of the characters that well especially Billy's father and brother. They start out by hating Billy - which is bizarre and never explained - so the subsequent inevitable coming together seems completely unconvincing. We also see Billy resolving a particular conflict with his ballet teacher at the end but he had no conflict with her to resolve. It was his father's conflict, Billy had nothing to do with it. This relationship with the teacher is crucial but isn't dealt with properly just so the focus can move to the father. To be fair a lot of these problems could have been in the directing or editing rather than in the writing.
Hall does veer away from schmaltz, which is to his credit, but he does it mainly by having the characters swear a lot. But in the main the dialogue is very good and nothing made me cringe, which is good considering the story.
The first act is good and then the usual second act problems happen but this is meant to get better again when the third act kicks in but the film actually gets worse scene by scene ending with a stupid embarrassing flash forward.
Stephen Daldry makes his directorial debut and is already being held on a par with Sam Mendes, a fellow theatre director turned movie director. I simply don't see it. Like Mendes, he coaxes excellent performances from the cast. Unlike Mendes, in all other aspects, his direction was disappointing - to say the least.
I really wanted to like - and expected to like - Billy Elliot and compared to many recent British films, it's good but it simply isn't good enough.