A FRAUD IN KID'S CLOTHING.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

``Billy Elliot'' is already being touted as this year's awards sleeper. Oxymoronic as such a concept may be, that is precisely what this earnest tale about a little English coal-town boy who's just got to dance feels like: calculated to sneak up and charm, but in the most emotionally and artistically fraudulent manner possible.

A deceptively modest piece sprinkled with a thin dusting of grit, ``Billy'' rips off everything from ``Rocky'' to ``Flashdance'' to last week's movie about the Commonwealth's dancing working class, ``Bootmen.'' But its main template for imitative success is the ``Full Monty''/``Waking Ned Devine'' cycle of adorable British commoner cinema. Only thing is, the best of those films understood that their fake folksiness was naturally comedic in nature. ``Billy,'' on the other hand, is a triumphal piece of stealth schmaltz.

Our hero is a pucky 11-year-old played by sad-eyed Jamie Bell. He is, of course, missing a parent (mum, though he does converse with her supportive ghost). His Dad (Gary Lewis) and older brother Tony (Jamie Draven) are, like all British movie miners, on strike and cranky. The lady who runs the ballet class at the union hall where Billy goes to learn boxing is, as are all English forces of life, portrayed by Julie Walters, outspokenly brassy but goodhearted deep down.

Billy doesn't quite know where his interest in pirouetting stems from - probably the dotty grandma he so selflessly looks after - but he is irresistably drawn to joining the tutu-clad girls in their lessons. On the sly, of course; a boy doing such things in coal country, circa 1984, is clearly at risk of extreme poofterism.

But no, Billy's just an artist, as the brassy lady soon susses. Now, if only Dad and Tony can be convinced it's safe - and, further, worth doing - a brilliant future not involving manual labor could be his.

Everything about ``Billy'' is as surefire as it could possibly have been engineered. Dreams discovered and followed against stiff personal, economic and social odds: check. Cute, hug-needing kid who won't let anything get him down for long: check. Cloddish relatives who, since they've got big problems for excuses, are good candidates for climactic redemption: check. Knee-jerk criticism of Margaret Thatcher's economic policies: It's an English movie, whaddaya expect?

The main problem with ``Billy'' is that every character in it behaves as the formulaic plot requires at any given moment, not like a spontaneous human being. While this makes it very easy for the film to warm the cockles and other mushy regions of those who'll overpraise anything that massages them into feeling good (this means you, academy voter), it's a dishonest approach to telling a story that's supposed to be about real people's issues and triumphs.

The film was made by Stephen Daldry, the well-respected director of the Royal Court Theatre, who has staged numerous admirable plays before making this his movie debut. ``Billy Elliot'' is accomplished enough, in its manipulative way, to ensure him a future in cinema. But let's hope that the next time he makes a movie about living life to its fullest potential, he gets some of the stuff of real life into it.

``BILLY ELLIOT''

(Rated R: language, violence, drug use, nudity)

The stars: Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Gary Lewis.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Stephen Daldry. Written by Lee Hall. Produced by Greg Brenman and Jon Finn. Released by Universal Focus.

Running time: One hour, 48 minutes.

Playing: Beverly Center Cineplex, West Hollywood; Century 14, Century City; Monica, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Two and one half stars