Lovers of The Full Monty and Brassed Off should get in to see Billy Elliot, the latest British film set within post industrial England. This is a quality film.

Billy Elliot has a harder, more thoughtful edge than the others though. Billy Elliot's greatest asset is its lack of sentimentality, it's matter of factness.

An 11 year old boy named Billy (Jamie Bell) just can't help himself. He loves to dance. He can't explain why. It's just so. His dad (Gary Lewis) sends him off to boxing lessons with Grand Dad's boxing gloves slung around the boy's neck.

But soon Billy has gravitated down to the other end of the hall where young girls in tutus are having Ballet lessons under the tutelage of the chain smoking Mrs Wilkinson (Julie Walters).

The film is set in coal mining England during the 1984 Coal Miner's strike. Dad and Billy's brother Tony (Jamie Draven) are on strike, money is very short and tensions are high. Mum has died some years before and this household is a very macho and male.

At eleven Billy's sexuality is undefined, much is made of the fact that not all male dancers are "poofs", but as far as Billy and the film is concerned that's not an issue. Billy just wants to dance. The charm of Billy Elliot is that firstly that it doesn't center itself upon the adults, but upon young Billy.

This boy is not terribly articulate, except for one dance sequence he doesn't even appear to dance all that well. But this awkward, untrained child is driven by inner forces he hardly recognises. And aren't all children?

Secondly, domestic details add poignancy. His senile grandmother getting lost in a nearby field. The neighborhood dogs repeatedly lunging out at passing pedestrians. The riot police eating sandwiches while they wait for the next confrontation.

Thirdly, class distinctions are alluded to but not examined, which is appropriate for a film that wants to us to see how the world would look from an 11 year old boy's perspective. So if working class, poor Billy lashes out at the rich upper classes, well it won't be for overtly political reasons.

But that's not to say that the adults aren't given some say. At one stage his ballet teacher explains the plot of Swan Lake to her pupil. Soon, and this is a beautifully written and conceived scene, we realize that she's talking about herself.

What will Dad's reaction be to Billy? Gary Lewis's performance as Dad adds a special poignancy to this father/son relationship and to this delightful film.

4 And A Half Classy Flys