Billy Elliot
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This movie is bizarrely rated 'R', supposedly for language.  There's some swearing and a little violence but nothing compared to your average American film. I don't get the rating system.  Anyway, Billy Elliot is being billed as this year's Full Monty.  I'm not sure I would go that far but this is a nice little film which definitely falls into the "feel-good film" category.  Most of that good feeling comes from the title character played by newcomer, Jamie Bell.  Billy Elliot is an eleven year old growing up in the north of England in a coal town where his father and brother are out on strike and his mother has recently died.  This is all suitably depressing but Billy has dancing feet.  He just has to dance his way through the day and as a result, he feels just about as out of place as Kevin Bacon felt in Footloose.  There's a definite Footloose feel to some of the choreography of Billy's dances. Anyway, one day at his boxing club, Billy catches sight of a ballet (pronounced bali) class and soon he is plié-ing with the all-girl class.  All goes well until Billy's dad discovers that he is no longer attending his boxing club and finds out what he is really doing.  At this point, Billy begins to train secretly with the ballet teacher (Julie Walters) in hopes of a tryout for the National Ballet School.  Walters is best known for her own coming of age film, Educating Rita, where she was the student and Michael Caine was the teacher. Bell is excellent as Billy and conveys very well with his amazing smile the joy he feels when he is dancing.   His father and brother are good also as they try to deal with police and scabs during a nasty strike while trying to decide what to do with Billy.  The child's view of all this is very poignantly shown as one of Billy's friends walks down the street dragging a stick along the house walls.   She doesn't even notice that the wall has been replaced by a line of police riot shields as she turns the corner. Walters does a good job as the world-weary ballet teacher who sees someone with the talent to escape the depressed life they are all trapped in.  Here there is some similarity to the situation of the out-of-work would-be strippers in the Full MontyBilly Elliot becomes a bit like Flashdance as it wends its way toward the expected climax and Billy appears before a panel for his dance audition.  There aren't any surprises in this plot but that's what makes it a feel-good movie.