When young Billy Elliot discovers a love and talent for dancing when he was supposed to be boxing it will push him to the limits as his family are struggling with the miners strike in the north east of England in the 1980s.
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Billy Elliot is only 11 years old and attempting to survive without his Mam who had passed away. Being raised by his father Gary and older brother Tony, who are both currently on strike due to the closing of the mines by Margaret Thatcher. Billy helps to care for his Grandma who also lives with them.
He is given money each week to attend a boxing class, although he isn’t a natural or very good at it. One day though when he is asked to practice alone after the class and give the keys to Mrs Wilkinson who is teaching the dance class, he ends up joining in but not only that going back each week.
It was never going to be easy to tell his father about the dancing, this was a time when dancing was very much seen as for girls and boxing for boys. However, he would find out he hadn’t been attending the boxing and wondering what was happening to all the 50p’s for the classes. Mrs Wilkinson offers amazing support to Billy and sees a talent within him that could see an escape from the north east and following the same path as his brother Tony. Preparing him for an audition with the Royal Ballet school in London.
Everything about this film is absolutly wonderful and I have lost count on the number of times I have watched it over the years. So much so that on the latest viewing (and realising that I had never reviewed it) that I found myself crying at different scenes. Surely that is the best way to give praise to a film when you realize that after 24 years and countless viewings it still has an emotional punch to pack (pun intended).
One of the most heartwarming moments has to be when Gary realises that his son has a talent and wants to support him in achieving it. Which given his demeanour was not what a viewer expects at all. We then have the friendship with Michael who is going through the motions of accepting that he is gay. The film certainly has plenty of sub-plots to go along with the main story and that really does make it to be a fantastic film.
Jamie Bell’s breakthrough performance is as wonderful as ever and you cannot help but love that this rightly set him on the path for stardom. Julie Walters is as great as ever as Mrs Wilkinson and really bonded well with Bell, creating some truly fantastic scenes. Jean Heywood, Gary Lewis and Jamie Draven all over brilliant support with Stuart Wells doing very well within his scenes.