The Full Monty

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

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.

Charming film from the other side of the pond about a bunch of working class blokes at the ends of their ropes who decide to stage a strip show for cash. The gimmick is that they promise to go "the full monty," much to the delight of their wives and girlfriends.

"The Full Monty" was a minor sensation in 1997, and started a movie trend that exists to this day: the little indie film that could and makes it all the way to the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards. I don't know that it's quite that good, but you could probably fit three "Full Monty"s into one "Titanic," the film that DID win Best Picture that year, and if I had to pick one of them to watch again now, I'd pick the naked dudes over the sinking ship any day.

Grade: A-

Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy combine with a great support cast to bring one of the freshest comedies in years to the big screen. Set in Sheffield after the great 'City of Steel' Days, there are more people in the dole queue, than out at work.

Struggling for money the pair decide that if the Chippendale's can get the kit off and make a packet, then why can't they. They recruit some more strippers, all desperate for some cash, and promise the city the Full Monty. Now all they need is to learn how to dance, learn how to overcome there fear of the Full Monty and sell some tickets.

This film is a very funny view of a struggling community in what was once a thriving city. Great characters, slick and realistic dialogue and great direction, this is one of the finest British comedies ever.

8/10

Unemployment is no joke (as an ex-pat Brit living and sometimes working in the US, I can confirm that with a vengeance). But sometimes, with a little vision and a lot of confidence (or desperation - take your pick), you can either find a way out of the depths of despair, or at the very least lighten the load a little, even if only for a short time. You take your pleasure wherever you can find it.

This movie will undoubtedly strike chords with those who have been unemployed long term, especially in the north of England (or in the Midlands or indeed anywhere. Depression - economic, social or clinical - knows no boundaries).

It's a smile, unless of course it *doesn't* strike a chord with you. Then you'll see it as a politically charged documentary with a few unnecessary laughs that ring very hollow.

But this isn't another Boys from the Blackstuff and I don't think it ever intended to be. The characters in this story are less focussed on pleading "Gissajob" and more inclined to say "Gissasmile". There is social commentary, yes, and it's well made (in my opinion, obviously), but the bigger message, I think, is that when life sucks - and it can do, most of the time - you don't have to give in to the feelings of utter despair.

You can fight back, you can refuse to be bowed, and for everyone in the awful predicament of being willing and able to work but being unable to find anyone willing to give you a chance, there is the possibility of finding a ray of sunshine, even if only temporarily, in an otherwise grey and depressing condition.

And it's those little rays of sunshine that help to give you hope. A laugh here, a giggle there, a bit of extreme silliness once in a while - it all helps keep you sane.

And that's what is enjoyable about this movie: it's the story of a group of men trying to stay sane even if it means losing some of their dignity in the process. And the one thing you notice towards the end of the story - and it's certainly capable of being true of real life - is that in raising their own spirits, the main characters here also raise the spirits of those around them.

They also remind me of myself and some of my friends. I could see myself taking part in something like this, albeit reluctantly (since I'm pathologically shy), just for the hell of it.

And doing something just for the hell of it is what makes this movie one of my favourites.