Stormy Monday - Lunedì di tempesta

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!

I'm not sure if the screenwriter Figgis and the director Figgis ever met or were even in the same room together for any length of time for this movie. The script, scene-by-scene, is no great effort and does not deserve the intense and captivating directing job given to it.

I enjoyed the romance story - Melanie Griffith is not my favorite actress, but she didn't annoy me which is, I guess, saying something. Sean Bean is really good playing an understated "cleaning" guy, he works well with Sting's Sociopath-with-a-Heart.

The movie loses me with all the gangster stuff. There are major holes in the plot and character inconsistencies that we are supposed to believe are rich thug eccentricities, but it just doesn't fly. I enjoyed the America in England bit - a little depressing to see the kind of malling that has paved over large parts of the U.S. already. But the best scenes have to do with the Polish jazz band, a great bunch of guys whose artistic potential in this movie was never realized.

I just wish a lot more importance could have been given to character development, so that once the scene between Griffith and Bean on the roof comes along we can appreciate it more.

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.

Brendan (Sean Bean) gets a job at a jazz club working for Finney (Sting) in England. Corrupt Texan businessman Francis Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones) recruits escort Kate (Melanie Griffith) for a mysterious job. He arrives in town trying to buy up the area including the club. Brendan starts going out with Kate who is a waitress at a restaurant. Finney turns out to have a darker side with a criminal past.

The first half is a bit of a muddle keeping some central mysteries. It does go down some good dark noir alleys. There is plenty of jazzy brass music. It's rainy and moody. I guess the plot can be seen as a bit jazzy. These are interesting characters. I would like the story to be clearer.

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.