Oct 27, 2001 07:46 AM
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This is a story of a child’s fight to triumph over great adversity, to fulfill his dream is a difficult task. The film will make you tear up if you are not careful...
Billy Elliot (played by Jaime Bell) is the story of an eleven year old boy being raised by a blue-collar family (father, older brother and grandmother) who is in the heat of a major miner’s strike. Early on it is made apparent that the mother has recently passed away and the father is left with the task of raising the children alone. All that this boy has of his mother is her piano and a few mementos.....sniffle....
Billy is sent for boxing lessons by his father - he hates it and it shows (he’s pretty terrible). While suffering through his boxing lessons he sees the ballet class at the same gym. He sneaks over and joins the class. We soon discover that his talent lies here. This is the problem: in this society, ballet is thought of as a “girly” activity, possibly associated with homosexuality. When his father discovers where he has been he is furious. Billy is then forbidden to continue. (Sadder yet, the father chops up his mother’s piano for firewood)
The ballet teacher offers secretly to teach Billy privately, which she does, and prepares him for an audition for the Royal Ballet. Of course in the heat of the union battles Billy misses the audition, the teacher confronts the family and much screaming and yelling ensues. Lots of F-bombs fly, particularly from the father and brother and the teacher storms off.
Billy is caught one night at the boxing gym with his friend Michael showing him how to dance. Naturally, in comes Dad and sees the two of them. Billy is so angry that he shows his dad what he can do. This scene is very Flashdance-like. At least dad gets the point and decides that it is worth the effort to give the kid a chance at Royal Ballet.
There is much more to tell, and I will not give away the end result. I will say, however, that the dancing that we glimpse at the end of the film is truly outstanding.
I really liked this film but I did have a couple of concerns:
1) I had a lot of trouble understanding the actors - the accent was very thick.
2) You don’t want to show this to small children unless you don’t mind them hearing quite a bit of foul language.
The film does have a good message - worth a look.
This DVD was loaned to me by a pal who truly is a movie connoisseur - thanks Sean!
