What a moving, cute, funny, political, sensitive movie! Since the very first scene sequence spectators notice that this will not be an ordinary film. Cinematography is great, it is perfectly edited, actors do an amazing job (Jamie Bell is awesome in the leading role, but how not to also highlight Gary Lewis's performance as his father, or Julie Walters's as his ballet teacher, or Jean Heywood's as grandma?). It is much more than a dance film, as people usually refer themselves to it. It deals with many complex elements together, such as English working class, British politics under Thatcherism (with miners on strike and violent police repression), complicated family relations, gender conventional roles, sexuality, prejudice, cosmopolitanism vs. provincialism, and boxing as the archetypal lower class sport.

Billy Elliot is about a fairly ordinary boy, his authoritarian homophobic father, a loutish brother, and a down at the heels dance instructor. I expected Billy to be effeminate, maybe even camp. However, he is a played by an ordinary sassy 11-year old who likes to move, to dance, and to do ballet.It is heartbreaking watching the poor kid trying deal with his adamant father.The father comes around almost instantly on seeing Billy dance. This left me reeling.The movie leaves out all of Billy's formal education and early professional career.By the end Dad is proud of his son, even if he dances, dances ballet, is gay and belongs to a travesty ballet company. This just seems a little too "happy ever after" at the cost of realism.

There were many positives of this movie, the biggest being Jamie Bell's performance. What a wonderful representation of a boy who isn't understood by his loved ones but supersedes this and goes on to success. Wonderful acting by all the main parts, especially Jamie who accomplished this very young.My biggest blight with this film is that I wish the side story with Billy and Michael was much greater. There was little intimacy between the two of them and I felt like at the end of the film it was still ambiguous as to what sexual orientation Billy held. Any bloke can get a quick kiss on the cheek but I felt these two never shared anything special enough in the film to warrant a romantic relationship between the two.

The character development and Bell's acting were really superb. The film was well made and edited as it perfectly captured the struggles that Billy face and takes the audience along on the ride that is his life. Bell too, accurately showed his character's frustrations and inability to stop dancing as the passion burned in him.The acting from the other actors and actresses were pretty good, though I would have to say not on par with Bell's. They got into their characters well enough, however it felt awkward at times, especially when Lewis as Elliot's father was trying to act really angry, it felt staged to me.The chemistry between the actors felt really real. Elliot's friendship with Michael was so sweet that I almost died inside. Elliot's relationship with the rest of the characters too, was well displayed.The dancing element to this was really cool; Bell can really dance. I liked that the dancing was incorporated into all kinds of scenes as it enhanced the different moods being displayed. The ending though did not have a lot of dancing, was a great way to end.I also loved the fact that the film is based on how boys should not do 'girly' stuff like ballet, and instead should do 'manly' stuff like football and whatnot. Take those gender stereotypes and gender intensification, and stuff it somewhere else.One down side to this story though, was that I did not really get what was happening in the community except that there was a strike. I was a bit unsure as to what the father and brother were doing, and why they didn't really get along with Billy. That was a bit shaky to me.Read more of my reviews at championangels.wordpress.com