Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) is an 11-year-old boy living in northeast England in the mid-1980s. While his gruff father and brother are taking part in a massive coal miners strike, Billy goes to boxing lessons and furtively plays his dead mother's piano out of loneliness. One day Billy notices a ballet class nearby. Intrigued, he begins practicing and taking lessons from Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters), a tough-minded teacher. Billy begins to fall in love with ballet but keeps his lessons a secret from his family, who struggle to put food on the table while the strike drags on. When his father finally learns the truth, a family crisis erupts, and Billy struggles to prove that dancing is more than just a hobby--it's his dream. BILLY ELLIOT is a touching and heartwarming story that avoids clichés by setting the story in the grim mining town of northern England amid economic hardship and sacrifice, showing the joy and release that dancing provides for Billy. Newcomer Jamie Bell, who does all his own dancing in the film, deserves special credit for his performance as Billy.
Review 1:
"...A heartwarming, toe-tapping delight....Daldry elicits a star-making turn from 14-year-old newcomer Jamie Bell..." -- 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Total Film
p.81 10/01/2000
Review 2:
"...Stephen Daldry anchors [the film's] melodramatic formula in tough, heartfelt realism....Jamie Bell [conveys a] convincing mixture of sullenness and innocent charm..."
Source: New York Times
p.E29 10/13/2000
Review 3:
"...An inspirational Brit-prole dance fable..."
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.94 11/17/2000
Review 4:
"...Jimmy Bell is an engaging Billy, earnest and high-spirited, and a pretty good dancer, too..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.35 10/13/2000
Review 5:
"...Daldry scores a sensational film debut....Bell explodes onscreen in a performance that cuts to the heart..."
Source: Rolling Stone
p.122 10/26/2000
Review 6:
"...If Dickens had written FLASHDANCE after seeing THE FULL MONTY, it probably would have come out something like this infectious, feel-good bundle of ambition in the face of adversity..." -- 3.5 out of 4 stars
Source: USA Today
p.1E 10/13/2000
Review 7:
"...Gracefully executed....The fleet-footed BILLY ELLIOT illustrates how classic storylines, in the right hands, can work over and over again..."
Source: Box Office
p.70 10/01/2000
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