Stormy Monday

This is one of those sleeper films, a good one that is not very well- known.....but should be. I really liked this modern-day film noir when I first saw it over a decade ago and the three additional times since.

The movie has all the features of a good noir, most of all a feeling of impending doom throughout, which a good noir exhibits. You know some bad things are going to happen, but you just don't know what and when. That uneasy mood runs throughout the film.

Add some tough characters, great cinematography (nice colors, too, in this case) and even a good blues music score and you have an interesting film. The story here revolves around a ruthless American businessman trying to buy up an entire block of the businesses in one area in Britain.

There's humor in here too with a goofy Polish jazz band, which looked and sounded just awful, and just enough action throughout to keep from getting too talky. Tommy Lee Jones, Melanie Griffith, Sting and Sean Bean star and all are fascinating to watch.

A beautifully shot film noir with natural, affecting performances and interesting characters who don't reveal everything in the first half hour. The great strength of the film is that it takes its time to slowly unravel, creating a mood of unrest and doom. The love story works but doesn't overpower the rest of the narrative. An enjoyable and sadly overlooked late-80s gem...maybe Figgis's recent success with "Leaving Las Vegas" will bring some attention to this earlier work.

Stormy Monday has a fairly routine plot, with a few odd twists to it. What makes it special? Three things.

The atmosphere of the movie makes you feel as if you're having a nice evening out on the town, making your way from pub to pub. You can almost taste the beer, and smell the smoke. Most of the story is shot on location in the old Newcastle city center. If you're in the right mood for something like this, then it's perfect.

Secondly, the characters are interesting and engaging, yet enigmatic. You want to know more about them. None fit the typical Hollywood stereotype. Sting, Sean Bean, Melanie Griffith, and Tommy Lee Jones (a relatively obscure actor then) are all in top form.

Third, if you enjoy jazz, then this is a must-see. In that regard, it is comparable to The Cotton Club, Round Midnight, or Bird. The visiting Polish jazz band reminds me of the struggling young musicians in Leningrad Cowboys Go America. This was clearly made by someone who appreciates good music.

This movie, released in the late 1980s, may be hard to find. But it's worth it.

I really enjoyed this movie. I'm a big fan of film, but more than that, I'm a fan of actors. Strong acting, as far as I'm concerned, can redeem even the worst of movies (under the right circumstances) - and it's wonderful when the film itself is already good.

Such is the case with Stormy Monday, the directorial debut of Mike Figgis (who would later have great success with Leaving Las Vegas). The casting seems somewhat unusual, but in the end is quite effective. I have never been a big fan of either Melanie Griffith or Sting, and by contrast, have always enjoyed Tommy Lee Jones and Sean Bean, so I was unsure of what to expect. But all four impressed me greatly with their performances. This is a film which requires the use of one's senses - we see the hopeful expressions on Griffith's and Bean's faces when they meet for the first time; we hear the frustration in the voice of Jones' crooked businessman when he can't seem to get his way, and the resolve in the voice of Sting's jazz club owner when he refuses to give in to Jones.

The cinematography (by the excellent Roger Deakins) is classic film noir, and when combined with the wonderful jazz soundtrack, creates a moody atmosphere not often seen in 80's cinema. Overall, this is a success - dark, atmospheric, and absorbing, an actor's showcase and a film enthusiast's smorgasbord. There should be more like this one!

These days a romantic thriller usually means sex, violence, and lots of neon lights, but underneath the typically sultry mood of this latter-day film noir there's a cool intelligence at work. Writer director Mike Figgis combines several strands of plot which otherwise have little in common, involving a moody nightclub owner, a dangerous American entrepreneur, his part-time mistress, and her new, younger boyfriend, all of them in an industrial British seaport dressed up for a hands-across-the-water civic promotion. A movie so self-absorbed with mood and imagery shouldn't work as well as this, but what sets the film apart from other neo-noir facsimiles is the unusual trans-Atlantic blend of talent and the emphasis on cross-cultural confusion, best expressed by a free-jazz rendition (by the Krakow Jazz Ensemble) of the Star Spangled Banner. The atmospheric visual style isn't enough to camouflage the shortcomings of the script, but Figgis maintains the drama at an admirably low-key level, and the location photography in the city of Newcastle takes excellent advantage of an appropriately gritty urban environment.