The Full Monty. - movie reviews

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 10, 1997 by Joseph Cunneen

"The Full Monty" (Fox Searchlight) is a more modest effort, a good-natured comedy about six unemployed steelworkers in Sheffield, England. The plot is minimal, but director Peter Cattaneo, working with a good script by Simon Beaufroy, provides us with an enjoyable sense of hanging around with working class ne'er-do-wells -- though their accents remain a problem. Beaufroy frames the action with recurring shots of the town from the hill.

After the welfare office fails to offer any realistic hope of a job, Gaz (Robert Carlyle), the leader of the unemployed group, gets a wild idea after sneaking into a local club and seeing a large ladies-only crowd wildly applauding a visiting troupe of male strippers. Indeed, the movie's title is slang for total nudity but fortunately "The Full Monty," far from being exploitative, is hilariously vulgar and humanly generous.

We can understand how Gaz's irresponsibility probably led his ex-wife to divorce him, but he is genuinely attached to his 10-year-old son. The boy is getting tired of his father's harebrained schemes, but this one hooks him, and we share his amused disbelief as the process of recruitment and training goes on. The middle-aged group that Gaz gathers to implement his scheme is comprised of hunks every bit as unpromising as the beginner's class in this summer's "Shall We Dance?" But as in that successful Japanese comedy, they are endearing non-role models.

Carlyle, infectiously cocky and full of satiric zingers as Gaz, almost gets cold feet at the end. More affecting is Dave (Mark Addy), overweight, embarrassed by his body, and basically sweet, who needs his wife's support to face the rigors of opening night.

Gerald (Tom Wilkinson), an ex-foreman who used to supervise some of these men, is equally convincing as he sheds his earlier sense of superiority and comes to enjoy solidarity with the troupe. In the early auditions, there is predictable ineptness, as when one of them volunteers to dance up a wall, a la Donald O'Connor, and falls flat on the cement floor. But the men gradually come to enjoy their new freedom, and there is a wonderful bit as they wait in line for relief handouts and spontaneously begin hoofing. Even better are the incredulous looks of amusement on the faces of a small multigenerational audience of black women corralled to watch the group's dress rehearsal.

"The Full Monty" doesn't try to solve the economic problems of steel workers, but wryly suggests that there are times when "jigging about in the buff" makes more sense than keeping a stiff upper lip. Sanely, the movie also assumes that Gaz and company are making only a one-time appearance.