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You sexy things Six hapless men pull themselves up by their G-strings in The Full Monty by ANNIE ILKOW
Despite the thick Yorkshire accents, The Full Monty had audiences at the Montreal World Film Fest rolling in the aisles. Without slathering on the sentiment like many British films do, the film is resolutely good-spirited yet still takes an unflinching look at the hopelessness of ex-steel workers in northern England in the 1980s. After sneaking into a local Chippendales show filled with hysterical women, Gaz (the superb Robert Carlyle from Trainspotting and Riff Raff) and Dave (Mark Addy) decide they're not going to just let "these poofs wave their tackle in our wives' faces." Gaz, desperate to pay for child-support, decides to get a group together. But with their tragic physiques, the only way they can draw a crowd is to promise to go "the full monty," get completely naked. The audition scene is, of course, painfully funny. When Gaz shows them how to, his strip to Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing" has his son and everyone else cringing. But there is more on display here than pathos. Like other British films that deal with the social upheaval in the north--Trainspotting and Brassed Off! most recently--The Full Monty focuses on a group of men who come together after being rejected by their crumbling communities. Traditional gender roles have been reversed: women are the breadwinners and independent, and the men's self-image is touchingly fragile. The women pee standing up and the men worry about their bodies, and the loss of self-respect that comes with long-term unemployment is achingly portrayed. The scene in which Gaz and Dave prevent another ex-steelworker, Lomper, from offing himself is set high on a hill above Sheffield and the writing in this scene is hilariously dark. It's as if the characters see their predicament with an awful clarity. But the final strip scene has a feel-good energy that is genuine as well as ridiculously funny; by taking it all off to Tom Jones in front of their friends and families, this ragtag bunch manage to find their self-respect and their joy. The Full Monty opens Friday, Sept. 19. See film listings for showtimes |
At first, a movie about British men stripping might seem more palatable as a radio play. But taking the interesting and not unfounded position that getting naked in public may be good for you, The Full Monty tells the story of how six hapless men survive the indignities of unemployment by pulling themselves up by their G-strings.