Pluskylang Great Film overall

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

SnoopyStyle Sylvia Brown (Emilia Fox) was a young orphan when she came to live with her paleontologist uncle 'Gum' Great Uncle Matthew. On his many travels, he rescued three baby girls and give them their names. Pauline Fossil (Emma Watson) is rescued from a lifeboat. Petrova Fossil (Yasmin Paige) is a Russian baby. Posy Fossil (Lucy Boynton) is left by her mother with ballet shoes, necklaces, and some money. The girls vow to be in the history books. They take in boarders. The girls get to train in Madame Fidolia's dance school.I don't know anything about the novel. The movie feels stuffed with a bit too much plot. The center of this should be the relationship between the three girls. I would have prefer concentrating solely on the girls especially with the terrific work from Watson and Paige. They're the heart of this anyways. All three are terrific.

collegedude3 I saw this movie about a year ago and watched it just recently. I have to admit the only reason I decided to even watch this was because of the lovely and just beautiful Emma Watson. What can I say I am a guy. Why else would I watch this?I had seen Emilia Fox before and Victoria Wood. Overall it had a good ensemble and decent acting. This was Emma Watson's first role outside of Harry Potter as far as I know. Although her character is portrayed as a bit selfish and cocky in the beginning of the movie, we get to see a girl who becomes sweeter and begins to care about others at the end. Her character Pauline is actually very insecure and Watson does some good work crying in the movie and showing all the appropriate emotions that are called for. My favorite part of hers is when she snaps at Victoria Wood for leaving her wrap in the wings, then she breaks down and sobs as she is running a tub while talking to Petrova.The little redhead Posey is a brat and plays a brat, and Petrova is more or less a sweetheart who seems kind. The wardrobe and the recreation of the time period of the 1930s is all well done and has a nice feel to it.I have to say that the ending kind of came suddenly with kind of a real lack of emotion. I was hoping for something more touching and less anti-climatic.It is a nice story for young children, especially girls. And that the movie teaches that with hard work, caring about family and putting them first, and believing in yourself that dreams can in fact come true. The DVD has special features with about a twenty minute or so interview with Emma Watson herself talking about why she took on the project, and what it was like working with the other actors, and her insight on the movie which I found delightful. The interview reveals she is not only beautiful, but is a very well spoken intelligent sweet young lady. I hope to see much more of her in independent, interesting roles in the years to come. 8 stars out of 10 for ballet shoes. Bravo!

bridgette-hq28 frankly, i thought this movie was awful...and terribly boring. i had a very difficult time getting through it. the actresses didn't do a very good job playing the characters in my opinion. they seemed so..so i boring and they simply didn't have any depth to them. watching the movie was thoroughly exhausting. The plot wasn't very good either. It's just not eventful enough. allow me to rephrase that. it wasn't interesting enough.that's it. Movies are supposed to entertain people and teach morals or whatever and this one didn't do a very good job at that. there is a high probability that you'll be falling asleep even if you're going to watch at noon for goodness sake.

TheLittleSongbird I will confess I haven't read the book for a while, but I do remember it was a wonderful read, with great characters and a sweet story. The TV adaptation was just as charming as the book. The only real thing that undermines it is the changes to the story, so some scenes didn't seem as developed as others, though I will say I am not the sort of person who criticises a film or TV drama on its unfaithfulness to the source material. The adaptation does look lovely, with some stunning costumes and some nice locations. The direction mayn't be the best ever in a TV drama, but I have seen worse in films alone. Remember the incompetent direction in that abomination Home Alone 4? Anyway, back to Ballet Shoes; I thought the acting was excellent. Emma Watson, Yasmin Page and Lucy Boynton are very charming as three ambitious young girls, and they are solidly supported by Emilia Fox(the actress Joanna David's daughter), Gemma Jones, Eileen Atkins and Harriet Walter, and even Richard Griffiths is subdued to a secondary role. The actors are aided by a well written script, and some bits are even touching; I did feel sorry for Petrova when her dancing mentor had a stroke during the ballet performance. I thought that Ballet Shoes was a charming adaptation of an excellent book, but I don't think it is the best TV drama ever made; one truly remarkable TV drama of recent times that does spring to mind is the recent Occupation. 9/10 Bethany Cox.