Billy Elliot reminds me of a Sunday night ABC/Disney family movie – with some scattered strong language and a few strange homosexual allusions. Maybe that’s why Billy Elliot has gotten such a strong critical response, it’s a family film not intended for the entire family. This whole “gritty but tender” thing just isn’t anything special for me though. I never felt like Billy Elliot significantly passes your standard heartwarming Disney fare. But it was honestly heartwarming, and it should be given credit for that.

Billy Elliot is perhaps best compared to Rudy, except that instead of football – it’s ballet. Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) is an eleven year old boy in a small, industrial, mid 80’s, English town. His mother has died and he lives with his father (Gary Lewis) and older brother (Jamie Draven), both of whom are on strike from their mining job. Billy regularly goes to boxing lessons, but is more attracted to the ballet dancers and secretly starts practicing with them.

The rest of the film shows us Billy struggling to practice in the face of his father’s opposition and even more powerful are his struggles to win the heart of his father and obtain his support. Very much like Rudy, Billy’s determination is encouraging and his successes are inspiring.

All of this is helped with some very mature acting on the part of Jamie Bell and some really powerfully edited scenes from the team of director Stephen Daldry. The riot scenes in the English town are strongly reminiscent of those in In the Name of the Father and I like world it allows us into. Despite many virtues on the technical level, however, it’s frequently difficult to shake the feel of an independent British film – almost as if we’re watching some BBC made-for-TV movie.

But Billy Elliot has heart. And it stays away from the schmaltzy and avoids the overly sentimental. Its successes are genuine and its triumphs are sincere. Billy Elliot never really picks up until the final half hour, but the heartwarming joy experienced in that final half hour really makes it worth the wait.