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Billy Elliot(Jamie Bell) pursues his love for ballet in the
musical Billy Elliot
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Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), age 11, has little choice when it comes to taking boxing lessons at the gym in his Northern England hometown. His father (Gary Lewis), a striking miner, sees Billy's boxing as a way to bring some honor back to their impoverished family. But Billy doesn't exactly hit the punching bag. He dances around it. He spins, dips, jumps and leaps in the ring. It's a sight to behold.
Billy's thin arms strain to lift his leather gloves. His boxing helmet tilts clumsily on his birdlike neck. He's a gawky, freckled-faced boy who can't help watching the tutu-clad girls in Mrs. Wilkinson's (Julie Walters) ballet class across the gym. Billy wants to be a dancer, and it's not long before he's hanging up his boxing gloves for good.
Billy Elliot, a high-spirited, coming-of-age tale by first-time feature director Stephen Daldry, is a strange movie hybrid. On one level, it's gritty, British social drama in the spirit of veteran filmmakers like Ken Loach, Michael Winterbottom and the late Alan Clarke. Billy's is a dismal home stuck in the center of an impoverished, industrial landscape. The miners' strike and the accompanying presence by London police squads only make matters worse.
Still, just when Billy Elliot looks permanently trapped in its bleak setting, a burst of musical fantasy kicks the film in a feel-good direction. Billy dances with the unbridled passion of a young Gene Kelly, and his joy for dancing is impossible to resist. Like the Golden Age musicals it so fondly emulates, Billy Elliot is one of those childlike films that makes one smile from start to finish. Granted, the film (courtesy of Lee Hall's script) possesses more than its share of trite melodrama. But Billy Elliot rises above its storytelling clunkiness thanks to a pair of emotional themes at its dramatic core. The lessons of Billy Elliot are to pursue your dreams no matter what the cost, and more importantly, always do what you enjoy best. By the film's closing moments, it's impossible not to embrace such a honest, human message.
It's 1984 and Billy watches the Miners' strike take a toll on his widowed father, older brother (Jamie Draven) and live-in grandmother (Jean Haywood). Basically, the British government is beating Billy's family into economic submission. His only joy comes from the ballet lessons. Mrs. Wilkinson even thinks Billy is good enough to audition for the Royal Ballet School, and is willing to help him prepare. Of course, Billy's father forbids him to continue the ballet lessons. Parental confrontation, you see, is a necessary part of every coming-of-age tale.
Daldry, the artistic director of London's Royal Court Theatre, shows a knack for cinematic drama. Billy Elliot unfolds its feel-good story in a lively fashion. It's astounding just how many subplots Daldry squeezes into the film. Billy's gruff father is a natural antagonist, while Mrs. Wilkinson makes for a timeworn mentor. The picketing miners comprise a violent backdrop. Billy's gay, teen-age friend (Stuart Wells) supplies a message for tolerance, while puppy-love attraction between Billy and Mrs. Wilkinson's young daughter grants Billy a brief taste of romance.
Billy Elliot's strongest tug at the heartstrings comes when Billy reads Mrs. Wilkinson a treasured note left to him by his deceased mom.
"I'm proud to have known you, and I'm proud that you were mine," Billy reads with surprising calm. "Always be yourself. I'll love you forever -- Mom." Like everyone in the audience, Mrs. Wilkinson is emotionally moved by Billy's note.
"She must have been a special woman, your mother" Mrs. Wilkinson tells Billy. But Billy isn't sure what she means.
"She was just me mom," he replies.
A fanciful dance number soon shoves the melodrama out of the spotlight. Billy glides across the gym elegantly. His arms swing with purpose. His legs skip in acrobatic fashion. Just as Kelly once credited ice hockey for his dancing steps, Billy's athletic grace makes the transition from boxing to ballet look believable. Once the volume rises on the Billy Elliot's retro soundtrack of British Pop music -- The Jam, The Clash and T-Rex -- the film becomes an infectious combination of song and dance.
Still, Billy Elliot owes its energy to Bell's dead-on performance. Bell's every word and gesture articulate teen-age shyness and anxiety. Even when he's not dancing, Bell fills Billy Elliot with scenes of credible, heartfelt emotion: He hides his ballet shoes; smuggles a ballet book from a library van and secretly practices his dancing in front of the bathroom sink. Bell's earnestness makes Billy into an affable, teen hero. It's never a question of whether Billy is going to audition for the Royal Ballet School. The question that propels Billy Elliot is whether young Billy will ever earn the support and respect of his macho father.
Like Karyn Kusama's boxing melodrama, Girlfight, Billy Elliot also uses sports as a way for its teen hero to grow up without the guidance of a mother. And, just like Girlfight, Billy Elliot thrives on a lead performance so perfectly matched that it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Still, I would be remiss if I didn't mention just how predictable and heavy-handed Billy Elliot becomes at its climactic payoff. It's almost enough to make one forget all the deep-felt emotions from earlier in the film.
Luckily, our most powerful images from the film remain focused on Billy's lively dancing. We remember Billy's leaps off the rooftops and his sprints through the alleys. The image of Billy bouncing on his bed and flapping his hands stays with us as we leave the theater. It's how it should be. After all, Billy Elliot owes its brassy entertainment to its bouncing, boy hero.
CityBeat grade: B.
