Billy Elliot Dances Circles around Competition

by Jason Zingale
For The Post

One of the many underdogs of the year, Billy Elliot, has surprised audiences with its simplistic yet inspiring story about a boy who trades in his boxing gloves for ballet shoes.

Like the recently released film Girlfight, Billy Elliot is about a child who discovers his identity and his life's passion by defying traditional gender roles and defeating the pressure to conform. Think ••Footloose•• meets ••The Fully Monty••, and you will be awed by this heart-warming epic that reminds us dreams do come true. It is nominated for two Golden Globes, including one for Best Picture.

The movie takes place in Durham, a North England coal-mining town nearing chaos in 1984, where Billy (Jamie Bell) takes daily boxing lessons at a local gym. Home life is stiff because his father (Gary Lewis) and brother Tony (Jamie Draven) are both involved in a coal mining strike. At 11 years old, Billy knows about pain through his father's firm dedication to the support of his family and the loss of his mother several years before.

One day, on the other end of the gymnasium, he notices a ballet class being taught by a burnt-out dance instructor, Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters). Walters' character is powered by her love for dance and her inexhaustible chain-smoking habits. Her passion for teaching is revived when she notices Billy's raw potential in ballet.

After Billy uses his boxing money for ballet classes, Billy's father eventually discovers his son's hidden pastime. Unhappy because he thinks all male dancers are gay, Billy's father forbids him to go to any more lessons.

While the character development throughout the film isn't the strongest feature, the more important angles the director takes are wonderfully depicted. Director Stephen Daldry's most glorifying scenes are the musical montages spread throughout the movie that show Billy dancing for joy with his instructor, and the town in a fit of rage, to the sound of T. Rex and The Clash.

The diverse selection of music does not hurt the film, but rather strengthens the emotional image of Billy's dancing, by mixing '80s pop music with the romantic melodies of Tchaikovsky. In the dancing scenes, Bell's face and body have an expressive range that moves from unpleasant worry, to harsh determination, to pure ecstasy, sometimes within the same shot. This displays Billy's "rough-around-the-edges" dancing style, yet still exhibits his firm gracefulness.

While Billy Elliot is a cookie-cutter, feel-good movie of the year, it is too bad the director incorporated foul language into the dialogue so frequently because it scored the film an R-rating. The film depends on British slang to enliven the dialogue. If the film had received a PG-13 rating, it would have brought in a much larger audience.