Living in such a hard country in Durham, where an ordinary family, that participate in the miner's strike, a young teenager boy named Billy Elliot, who is forced to learn the martial arts, but incidents come to climax, when he falls in love with the ballet classes, the thing that turns down his life.
Julie Walters ... is spirited and colorful as the ballet teacher, and Gary Lewis is somehow convincing as the dad even when the screenplay requires him to make big offscreen swings of position.
The story is familiar, to be sure, but director Stephen Daldry and writer Lee Hall tell it so persuasively it's irresistible, and the movie's score of vintage T. Rex classics could do for glam-rock what "The Full Monty" did for disco.
Terrific story of young ballet dancer has strong language.
ReelViews
January 01, 2000
Neither revolutionary in its approach or subject matter nor seamless in its storytelling, Billy Elliot nevertheless manages to sketch the lives of characters we come to care about.
The unvarnished, non-enhanced spectacle of a human being executing a display of physical prowess will always have the power to astonish, and the young Mr. Bell proves this very nicely.
Film.com
January 01, 2000
Billy Elliot is a feel-good movie that you don't have to feel bad about feeling good about.
eFilmCritic.com
April 19, 2002
Billy Elliot earns every one of its sentiments and emotions without getting overly manipulative or preachy
The film about atypical artistic pursuits in a blue-collar community that "The Full Monty" sought to be. Peter Darling's choreography dexterously captures the defiance in the dancing - rage against economical and emotional repression in a motherless home.
