Dancing against the odds

'Billy Elliot' leaps into theaters

Jamie Bell makes his feature film debut as the title character in "Billy Elliot"

By Jamie Allen
CNN.com Senior Writer

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The 1984-85 miner's strike in England ended in defeat for unions hoping to take on the Margaret Thatcher-led Conservative government. It's an event that is considered one of the defining moments for Great Britain since World War II, and is still a source of tension in working-class Britain.

But "Billy Elliot," which is slowly getting released in theaters across the United States, uses the strike to tell a different story: the artistic expression and blossoming of a boy.

The title character, played by Jamie Bell in his feature-film debut, is an 11-year-old whose father (Gary Lewis) and brother (Jamie Draven) are miners walking the pickets in the name of the strikers' union.

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While dad and brother are facing off with riot police, Billy begins skipping his boxing lessons to take ballet in secret. Soon, he is presented with opportunities that have a distinct double edge: They'll give him a chance to do something that he'd only dreamed of, but will reveal his secret, too.

Director Stephen Daldry, who made a name for himself in British drama as the artistic director of the wildly successful Royal Court Theatre, says the film is more than a British "Flashdance" (1983) for the young.

"I don't think it's a film about dance," says Daldry. "I think it's a film about going through your family and leaving your family and the bittersweet element of growing out and growing up and moving on."

The movie also stars Julie Walters, nominated for a best actress Oscar for "Educating Rita" (1984). In this, she plays Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy's chain-smoking ballet teacher who finds hope in Billy's potential.

Mrs. Wilkinson is a "disappointed woman on every level," says Walters. "She's jaded. And into her life comes this boy who, she knows instantly, has got something very special. So she clamps onto it and becomes completely obsessed."

Not everyone is so thrilled with Billy's talents. When his dad and brother find out that he's been devoting time to pirouettes instead of punches, they try to keep Billy from following his dreams. Their interference makes Billy realize how much he enjoys dance. From there, it's a classic struggle between parent and child.

"I suppose we all have experiences with problems with our family," says Daldry. "I think every boy has an issue with their dad, and lots of dads have issues with their sons."

"Billy Elliot" was produced by Working Title Films, which is responsible for British movie hits like "Notting Hill" (1999) "Elizabeth" (1998) and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994).

Working from a screenplay by Lee Hall, Daldry filmed "Billy Elliot" over a seven-week period in Easington, a town on the northeast coast of England. It's not a coincidence that Easington was one of the largest coal-mining towns in Europe before the strike, he says.

Director Stephen Daldry says "Billy Elliot" is more than "Flashdance" for the young. He contends that the movie is about family issues and the pain of growing up

Daldry wanted an accurate representation of Billy's town, and he got it. Residents there are still touchy about the strike -- so much, in fact, that Daldry had to hold a town meeting there just to get residents' approval to make the film.

In the end, those skeptical residents played a large role in the making of the movie.

"Most of the miners that you see in the movie were actual miners that live in that town or in villages nearby," says Daldry.

Contrasting the gritty struggle of the working class are the film's many scenes featuring dance sequences with Bell. Walters, playing the teacher, had to keep up with her young co-star, who has been dancing since he was 6.

"He (Bell) was the person that had to take me under his wing," Walters says.

"I used to ask him to show me various little steps that we would do in our routine, and he'd do them and I wouldn't recognize them as the thing I was trying to do," says Walters, laughing.

In the end, says Daldry, the movie is more than the story of a boy who wants to dance.

"This," he says, "is a film that celebrates the human spirit."

BillyElliot.com

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