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Review Archive
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    		•

    FILMS

    Billy Elliot (2000)
  • Starring Julie Walters, Jamie Bell, Jamie Draven, Gary Lewis, Jean Heywood, Stuart Wells, Mike Elliot, Janine Birkett, Nicola Blackwell

  • Directed by Stephen Daldry

    • There's something about English and Irish films that are endearing to me. If this had been a movie about a boy who forbidden to dance because most adults in his life were irredeemably narrow-minded and felt that said gyrations of the body were socially unacceptable—but the boy was living in Small Town, America—it might not interested me as much.

    What? What did you say? Oh, wait a second. You're right. Footloose starring Kevin Bacon. What was I thinking?

    OK, you caught me. It's a good story, no matter the backdrop. (Please keep in mind, when referring to Footloose as "good," you must understand that I mean it's '80s good—which is an entirely separate entity from the conventional use of the term "good.")

    Billy Elliot is about a boy who isn't into boxing or football or any sports in which most boys his age should be interested. He's into ballet, but the film explicitly points out he doesn't have any homosexual tendencies. He takes lessons at the local gym, hiding his dancing skills from his disapproving father and brother (mom passed away years before).

    Young Billy Elliot uses dance as a form of escape from his life. Rage bottles up inside and when he can't take it anymore, dances it away.

    I know, sounds corny. But it's actually quite good.

    Jamie Bell plays the title role and should be commended for his performance. My rule of thumb for movie-watching is a distant relative to Leon's motto in The Professional. Whereas his mantra for exclusions to killing "no women, no children," mine for movie-going is "no children, no animals."

    It's not that I don't like children. They're great. I used to be one myself, thank you very much. But most scriptwriters have difficulty writing children's dialogue, and a child in a film usually ends up doing nothing more than attempting to look cute while saying the darndest things. Cute kids in movies are lame, lame, lame. Because, they're not cute. Same thing pretty much goes for animals—they want to be cute, but tend to annoy me. (Although, I will admit that judicious and sparse use of any type of monkey in any film will tend to win my favor.)

    Having said that, there are exceptions to the "no children, no animals" rule. Not many, but a few. Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense and A.I., as well as the two kids from the Nicole Kidman thriller The Others (Alakina Mann and James Bentley) and now Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot. That's my list. I trust these young actors to play a part, and play it well. They seem to understand that they're not cute, and if they try—well, it'll suck (and when they grown up, they'll end up in the company of Macaulay Culkin, Emmanuelle Lewis, and the cast of outlaws from Different Strokes.)

    If a movie has a child in a leading role and it ain't one aforementioned kiddies—the good ones, not the criminals—forget it. I ain't buying. And even then, I'm cautious.

    I'm not sure if I would've paid full-price admission for this one, but as a rental with a friend (or in my case, I watched it with my wife) it's definitely worth it. Family drama (complete with a senile gramma and a blue-collar "traditional" father) and a small English town are the backdrop against which this story plays out. Billy has hopes and dreams of being a ballet dancer, but he's got obstacles to overcome—the least of which are financial, as well as a brother and father who refuse to accept that Billy actually likes ballet, is good at it, and that he's not a poof. (Dad and brother have an extremely difficult time wrapping their brains around that last one.)

    If movies like The Commitments and The Full Monty are your cup of tea (no English pun intended) then you'll definitely enjoy Billy Elliot. It's a film where, as the credits roll, you can't help but thinking, "Isn't that nice. Good for him." And then move on with your life.

    There's no Earth-shattering, billion-dollar special effects budget or memorable lines or celebrity superstars. Billy Elliot is a character-driven—and I hate to use this phrase, but I'm going to—"feel good" film.

    Good for us. Isn't that nice?