The Full Monty (1997, R)

 

I’ll never fully work through the list of good movies I haven’t seen, and I’m sure there are others on that list more pressing than this one, but who cares?  I’d heard good things – both about the movie and the musical it inspired – and I recently discovered that the excellent Robert Carlyle (Once Upon a Time’s Rumpelstiltskin) is in it, so I watched it and had a grand old time.

 

The Full Monty is of course the story of a group of men, unemployed steelworkers from Yorkshire (until I learned about Robert Carlyle’s involvement, I’d somehow missed that it was British – weird,) who decide to earn some fast cash by becoming strippers.  Now, this is not a Magic Mike thing.  All these guys are regular Joes, not what you’d call knockouts – they come in various ages, weights, and levels of pastiness.  So naturally, there’s plenty of comedy to be mined from their reluctantly awkward attempts to learn their new trade.

 

And comedy there doubtless is – Simon Beaufoy’s script is filled with funny gems.  There’s ringleader Gaz’s disastrous first strip rehearsal (note to self:  if you’re going to seductively twirl your jacket above your head, make sure the pockets are empty,) everyone’s horrified reactions to their last-to-be-removed costume item, and some perfectly-timed, pithy music cues.  And that’s just a few choice stripping-related humorous bits.  The laughs come steadily and delightfully throughout the whole film, and our hapless heroes get into all sorts of other amusing situations, too; my favorites include an epic bungled burglary and an utterly ridiculous job interview.

 

But the film has a surprising amount of heart as well.  Gaz spearheads the whole scheme because he’s determined to scrape enough money together to maintain joint custody of his son, and his ongoing struggle to connect with young Nathan is one of the movie’s important through lines.  Another is the way losing their jobs seems to cut these men off at the knees – many of them begin the film drifting, unemployment sapping them of pride and hope.  This is especially evident in Gerald, the former foreman who, six months out, still hasn’t admitted it to his wife.  In a bizarre way, stripping helps them take back a bit of agency from an indifferent world.

 

A final significant theme deals with the nature of objectification, of men finding themselves uncomfortably within the scope of the female gaze.  There’s a lot of self-consciousness from all the guys (even as they continue to objectify women as a matter of course,) but pudgy Dave carries the brunt of it.  As he and the others suddenly begin to be concerned about the state of their bodies, he agonizes over his belly and quietly wonders if women will be kinder about him than he’d be about them.

 

Robert Carlyle’s Gaz is the clear center of the film, and he magnificently inhabits the role.  Tom Wilkinson(!) is great as Gerald, and the movie also features Lesley Sharp (Skye from “Midnight” on series 4 of Who.)  I’m not familiar with any of the other actors, but they’re all great, with special mention going to Mark Addy as Dave and William Snape as Nathan.

 

Warnings

 

Language, drinking, smoking, miscellaneous delinquent activity, and sexual content, including stripping (obviously!), speedos, and nudity (though, incidentally, not the actual full monty itself.)