Le grand jeu

I want to start off by saying, if you're looking for slap-shtick comedy and low- rent toilet humor, this is NOT the movie for you. It has its moments of "belt-in- the-face" fun, but they are consistently grounded in the real problems the lead characters face -- unemployment, loss of family, lack of self-respect, fear of ridicule and a bleak future that promises even greater failure. This is not a Farrelly Brothers kind of story...and that is what makes it so special.

Gaz is broke, on welfare, lives in the projects, is behind on his child support and is threatened with losing his son to his ex-wife unless he can pull together 700 pounds (about $1100). But this is Sheffield, England -- once a boomtown but now a deadening city of shopping malls and garment mills, where the factories (and the guys that worked in them) are empty shells of themselves. The women have jobs; the men have job fairs. Into this comes a touring "Chippendale's" dance troupe (aimed at women only; after all, they have the spare money) and an idea is born. Gaz and some mates will strip all the way, give the ladies "the full monty", as a way to earn some quick change.

The idea is preposterous. Only one of the six men in the new dance troupe is good-looking enough to pull it off (pun intended); the rest are either fat, skinny, old and/or ugly. But the movie's gentle suggestion is that not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, but so is self-respect...and in following through with their plans, they gain a LOT more than just 2000 pounds each.

Robert Carlyle is good as the anchor of the piece, always pushing and planning and cajoling and begging and even stealing, as need be, but it's the rest of the cast that makes this movie work -- from Tom Wilkinson as a manager ashamed to tell his wife he's lost his job to Mark Addy as a man who's so ashamed of how fat and unattractive he is, he's driving his wife away right down to Hugo Speer and his joyful "let's have a blast" attitude.

"The Full Monty" is a gem of human comedy aimed not at the gut but at the sense of hope we all carry. I recommend it for anyone who needs a lift.

This is an unbeatable movie! I saw it at the theater in 1997 along with about 7 other women...we all went to the theater alone because our hubbies refused to take us! Seriously...I did not know one single woman in the theater that day! We all loved the movie right off...

My sister bought it and we watched it with captioning, and boy had we missed a lot of lines at the theater and funny ones at that! You see with the English accents and all their slang-- you just can't understand a lot of what they are saying...

Watch this movie with and without the captioning! It's like watching a movie with English being your second language, and I B.S. you not!

The English working class has a different way of expressing themselves--its so charming and hilarious...

I think Robert Carlysle is brilliant "Gaz". I cannot think of anyone who could have done it better.

This movie cannot be beat! I bought it and recommend it to everyone!! Definitely a ten out of ten.

One thing I've always appreciated in British films is that the actors look like Real People. I don't mean unattractive, but just normal everyday looking, unlike Hollywood actors who are exceedingly pretty with perfect teeth and stylish clothes, and unlimited bank accounts, no matter what their occupation. In this film, a group of unemployed steelworkers decide to put on an amateur strip show to make ends meet. It is presented as a comedy, but it does have some very moving moments, as it shows the despair and desolation of unemployment. And it subtly displays the economic conditions of Thatcher's England, where entire industries were shut down, taking jobs and local economies along with them. As in other British films, the characters seem real, like people we would know if we lived in their town. I can picture having a pint down at the local pub with Gaz and Gerald more than, say, Tom Cruise.

The Full Monty offers a seductive, playful piece of comic gumption: Six unemployed steel workers become amateur male strippers, baring themselves as an antidote to the dole. The title is British slang for "buck naked," but the film isn't about nudity, or lust, exactly. It takes as its subject the free-falling sense of desperation provoked by unemployment. As these flaccid bodies strive to exude "sexiness," director Peter Cattaneo turns their struggle into a blue-collared survival reflex, which yields a thin yet agreeable amount of emotional weight.

Robert Carlyle plays a bitter but devoted divorced father trying to meet his support payments so his son will trust him, and Mark Addy just wants to provide for his nurturing wife, who worries about the secret G-string buried in her flabby husband's underwear drawer.

Suffering ritual-humiliation for the sake of loved ones, these men pawn their dignity for economic survival. Cattaneo allows the script to hint at the social and fiscal conditions endured by the working-class under Thatcher, but mostly he avoids politicizing the material. Instead, he aims for rowdy, laugh-out-loud passages about awkward pseudo-debauchery. Perhaps The Full Monty settles for rather broad, coarse humor, but it has intensely pleasing charms and Cattaneo gives it an unexpected deadpan consistency. He exposes the comedy of shame, and then the comedy of shamelessness.

ERIC BELTMANN

When I first saw this movie, I absolutely loved it. With each successive viewing, I noticed the characters' emotions as they coped with the dirty hand that has been dealt to them and making the most of it. I also saw the immense bond between the men as they already shared the low-class existence and a rather bleak future but seeing nothing but an opportunity to be rich. And they were all willing to endure the humiliation in front of hundreds of people to achieve it.

Like M*A*S*H, the Full Monty shows people placed in a harrowing existence with seemingly no end in sight. Yet the laughs are sprinkled throughout nicely, and even though each man has their own personal fears to overcome, they find strength in each other, which makes the experience all the more fruitful.

The actors were absolutely top notch, particularly Robert Carlyle. I was already impressed with his performance from Trainspotting to know that he is very capable of carrying the central figure of the movie. Peter Cattaneo's direction was inspired, and he knew the right angles to use (check out the scene when the lads were auditioning new members, particularly Guy) for perfect comedic effect.

I admit that some of the sub-plots needed more fleshing out, particularly between Gaz and Nathan as well as Gerald and his wife. And as many times as I've seen the movie, I don't know much about Guy other than his love for Singing in the Rain and his obvious natural endowment that took the breath away from his mates!

The music was terrific as well. I dare anyone to deny that they had to consciously stop tapping their feet when hearing "Hot Stuff" after watching this movie.

I have been to Sheffield recently, so the movie holds even more personal meaning for me. And for all those complaining about the accents being difficult to understand, watch it again. It's in English not Chinese! The accents are part of the charm. I rate this movie a solid 8.5 out of 10 and worth seeing many times over.