Billy Elliot

      We watched this movie in Signs and Wonders last...Sunday?  I really liked it. The only problem was that it kind of reminded me of Disney channel movies, because part of the plot was Billy sneaking away to practice ballet (or BAL-ee, as his dad would say) when his dad thought he was practicing boxing. That made me think of the Disney channel's "Oh, the parent is trying to live their dream through their child, but you should go for your own dream, kid". So overused and wrong. Also, though I loved the ballet teacher character, that has also been used in Disney movies; an adult, sometimes a really "tough" adult, who sees the kid's talent and encourages them to do the activity.
       What was not in the Disney movies was the miners' strike. A family living in poverty, their mom dead, having been out of work for months, and a family who is real. In the Disney movies, the parent was self-centered and bossy, for no reason other than selfishness and lack of wisdom. This type of parent does not come off to me as realistic at all, but this dad did. He was under a lot of pressure, and so it made perfect sense for him to get angry when his son suddenly added more chaos to the mess by doing something unexpected, like "BAL-ee!"(that is just an awesome way to say ballet). Later in the movie you could see that he really loved his sons. The father was willing to give things up, including the strike, so that Billy could go try out for the ballet school.
        I think the best things about this movie were the scenes about the older son and the dad, and Billy's dancing. None of the scenes of Billy dancing are especially precious in my mind. I just got carried away by the way he loved dancing. I like movement; I like to draw it. So to see Billy thoroughly enraptured by movement makes me smile.