Billy this ain't ballet!! (Billy Elliot (DVD))

Name: savanna

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Product:	Billy Elliot (DVD)
Date:	08/10/00 (248 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A feel good film and British

Disadvantages: All the media hype creates unrealistic expectations!

As you all doubtless know by now, Billy Elliott is the story of an eleven year old boy growing up in a tough environment in County Durham in 1984, amidst the chaos and depression of the miners' strike.

Billy discovers he likes to dance by wandering into a ballet class (taught by Julie Walters, yet another under-statedly brilliant performance from a great actress) which is unaccountably sharing the same space as his boxing class that day.

From then on the storyline is somewhat predictable. As Billy discovers that his talents lean towards dancing, rather than boxing, for which he has no gift whatsoever, he has to fight to be allowed to continue to dance because naturally, his macho father and brother, both miners, consider this an embarassment.

What struck me immediately about his dancing, was that it was not so much ballet, as a mixture of Riverdance/flamenco. Whenever Billy gets really upset or angry he works it through in a frenzy of dance. The scene where his father discovers him dancing with his best friend (who was wearing a tutu!) was so typical of this. Billy used dance instead of words to communicate his feelings to his father in a demonstration of the best flamenco-style foot stamping before bursting into a whole mix of dance styles and gymnastics. The sheer energy of these scenes made my feet twitch and an overwhelming feeling of wanting to dance took over! Thank goodness I managed to restrain myself!

Of all the dance sequences, in particular, I loved the scene were Billy is dancing with his teacher,Julie Walters; it was brilliant, but I wished it could have been longer! It was cut when the camera suddenly switched into another scene; there were a couple of moments like that where I was momentarily thrown.

Despite the predictability of the story, there was some very strong acting. I really enjoyed the performance of the young boy who played the part of Billy's best friend in the film. He has hardly bee
n mentioned and is a newcomer, but I thought I thought he carried off a pretty difficult role convincingly.

This film is like Red Bull - it really does give you wings! I laughed and cried alternately, (always embarassing when you emerge from the cinema with your mascara having made black tramlines down your face). Anyway, I really recommend that you go and see this film - it's really worth it.

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