BillyElliot Reviews & Ratings

Billy Elliot is a British drama film produced and released in the year 2000. The story was written by writer Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. In 2001, a novelization of the film based on Lee Hall’s screenplay was commissioned to Melvin Burgess. In 2005, the story was adapted for the West End Stage as Billy Elliot the Musical and opened in Australia in 2007 and in Broadway in 2008.

The plot revolves around Billy Elliot played by Jamie Bell, who is torn between his love for dance and the expectations of his father during the time of the UK miner’s strike. The story starts when Billy was taken to the boxing gym by his father and discovers that he doesn’t like the sport at all. Part of the boxing gym was used to train ballet dancers and when Billy witnessed the training of the ballet dancers, his hope to become a professional ballet dancer sprouted. He is helped by the ballet teacher played by Julie Walters and trains him during secret ballet sessions. When his father, played by Gary Lewis, discovers his absence during boxing classes, Billy is forbidden to dance but he continues doing so secretly. When Tony, Billy’s older brother played by Jamie Draven was arrested, Billy missed an important audition for the Royal Ballet School. It was then that the ballet teacher confronted Billy’s father which outraged him even more. However, after seeing Billy dance, he realized his son’s passion for ballet and takes him to a ballet audition where Billy eventually got accepted for the Royal Ballet School. The story ends with an older Billy, played by Adam Cooper, playing the lead role in Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake”.