Billy Elliot

Herald rating: * * * * *

Cast: Jamie Bell, Gary Lewis

Director: Stephen Daldry Rating: M (violence and offensive language)

Running time: 110 minutes

Screening: Sneak previews this weekend. Opens Village, Hoyts, Berkeley, Rialto cinemas Thursday.

Review: Tim Watkin

From the film's opening scene Billy Elliot is dancing. Even if it is just bouncing up and down on a bed to his brother's records, he's a boy who can't stop moving. He's also a boy who is supposed to be boxing. But, as his friends say, he's crap at boxing and even walking down the street playing with a stick, he can't help mimicking Fred Astaire.

The problem for the eponymous character in Billy Elliot is that he's growing up in a time and place where girls dance and boys play football and box.

It's the mid-80s in northern England and the miners' strike is reaching fever pitch. Thatcher has called the miners "the enemy within," while the workers are turning to violence in defence of their homes and livelihoods.

Dance and the strike. It's the central juxtaposition in a film that's full of them. Boxing and ballet, people and power, middle-class and working-class, gay and straight - they're all grinding up against each other in this wonderfully rough and tender story.

At first, his newfound passion is hidden, then mocked as the village fights for its dignity. Billy's dance, as he's learning, is his frustration and his freedom. In one brilliant scene he takes to the alleys, dancing out his 11-year-old, strike-bound rage and confusion.

Then, as the miners' strike wanes, Billy's courage and ability grows, culminating in his victory as the miners face defeat.

He's a shooting star - an individual certainly, but successful only thanks to sacrifices made by his family and community - who carry their aspirations skyward as they go back into the pits.

Explaining his love of dance at his London audition, Billy says, "I sort of disappear." It expresses his need to escape that is both a dream and an agony.

Poignant? A trifle sentimental? Yes. After initial rave reviews, there has been a backlash in Britain, picking at the film's minor flaws.

Yes, Billy's dad's conversion to dance is sudden but it fits with his all-or-nothing attitude to life. What's more, Gary Lewis gives a raw and outstanding performance in this role.

Yes, the miners' strike is now well-worn fodder but Daldry's direction and screenplay have an edgy tension that drives the film, yet allows space for your own thoughts and feelings. The film has a generous spirit and out of it comes a warm humour, a burning passion and superb performances.

The one who holds it together is the startlingly good 14-year-old Bell, as Billy Elliot. It's his anger, his dream, his dance and his film. And what a film.

Although it's only February, Billy Elliot is already a contender for film of the year.