BILLY ELLIOTT -------------
When Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters, "Educating Rita") is forced to conduct her ballet class in the local boxing gym, she attracts a most unusual pupil. Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), who's no good at boxing, takes to dance immediately. Unfortunately, widowed Dad (Gary Lewis III) and older brother Tony (Jamie Draven), tough striking coal miners, don't like the connotations associated with the dance in "Billy Elliot."
LAURA:
"Billy Elliot" is a strange hybrid of a movie, part working-class-struggle reminiscent of the British kitchen sink films, part surreal fantasy. Well acted and unusually photographed, it has some major flaws, most notably that Billy's sudden attraction to ballet comes out of the blue.
Billy's world is a cramped male household in Northern England where he cares for his apparently senile grandmother (Jean Heywood) when he's not hanging out with his friend Michael (Stuart Wells). Older brother Tony is an aggressive striker, frequently bringing the law to their doorstep en masse. Dad Jackie's not over the loss of his wife and is struggling to tone down his older son's machismo while punching up his younger son's. He can't be convinced by Mrs. Wilkinson that Billy's Royal Ballet School material, but a defiant dancing display put on by Billy changes everything.
Young Jamie Bell is a natural young actor, shading Billy with beautiful subtleties. He's a good kid caring for his gran, but won't be pushed around. The glow that comes from his face as he smiles away Michael's concerns about outing him (Billy's ballet dancing enables Michael to come out - a truly silly story idea) exudes mature compassion. His dancing is energetic and appropriately unpolished.
Gary Lewis is dynamic and sympathetic as the tough dad who turns tender, supporting his son staunchly once his eyes have been opened (again the script betrays a character, as there's no evidence of dad's soft side in the film's first half, making his transition a bit startling). Walters is good as the crusty teacher ('I feel like a pussy' complains Billy. 'Well don't act like one,' instructs Wilkinson), yet we're given no idea of her dance background and she unexpectedly drifts out of the film's second half. I simply didn't get enough of Nicola Blackwell as Wilkinson's outrageously precocious daughter Debbie.
This could have been such a good film if Lee Hall's script had been given a major overhaul. Besides the problems already noted, he has Billy punch a boy inexplicably after his big audition - this from the kid who couldn't throw a punch in the ring. His characters learn to stop thinking of ballet as an occupation for 'pooftahs,' yet Billy's best friend comes on to him once he starts dancing. Billy shows no particular grace until he espies a tutu.
Visually, the film is often arresting. Billy dances up the street and hits a wall - the camera pans around and the seasons have changed. Debbie trails a stick along a phalanx of police shields as if they were a picket fence. A coal miner becomes enthralled watching a ballet rehearsal as his son paces the hall. Mrs. Wilkinson explains Swan Lake to Billy as they wait for a drawbridge to close. These images are accompanied by a radical mixture of music which ranges from The Clash to classical.
"Billy Elliot" makes a cliched story seem fresh, but one too many bad choices yank it away from the truly inspiring.
B-
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