The Full Monty

Peter Cattaneo, UK 1997, 91 mins

The amiable anti-heroes of The Full Monty have been consigned to the social scrap heap, ghosts of Sheffield's once prosperous steel industry. Unemployed steelworker Gaz (Robert Carlyle) struggles financially to keep joint custody of son Nathan (William Snape), while Dave (Mark Addy) has gained weight and become impotent in response to the stresses of the dole queue and work as a security guard, which he clearly detests. Having persuaded the lads to gatecrash a Chippendales show, Gaz is inspired by the money and female adoration attracted by these sleek, well-muscled individuals and sets about trying to assemble a homegrown strip act.

In a touching, but nevertheless amusing scene, Gaz and Dave (initially unwittingly) sabotage Lomper's (Steve Huison) bid for suicide via car exhaust inhalation and he too becomes a member of the merry band. Gerald (Tom Wilkinson) meanwhile, has not told his wife that he has been laid off and maintains the daily charade of `going to work', in reality treading a well-worn path to the job centre. An initial attempt to recruit him on the basis of his ballroom dance talents fails, but his services are eventually obtained via a particularly underhand means of psychological warfare involving his much-prized collection of garden gnomes.

The remainder of the line-up are found during an amusing sequence of auditions: Guy (Hugo Speer) is exceptionally attractive (and well hung) while Mr Horse (Paul Barber) has attitude and a certain dancing flair. The scene is set for a mem- orable evening's entertainment as the film follows their preparations for the show where all will literally be revealed.

A slight hiccup occurs when Gaz, Gerald and Horse are arrested for indecent exposure during rehearsal in a derelict steelworks' shed, boosting ticket sales for the show no end. In a hilarious scantily clad chase over walls and amid washing lines Guy and Lomper flee from the police and in one of the film's best moments, find each other.

This film is an amusing, occasionally bittersweet commentary on the social dispossession often synonymous with unemployment. Its characters command our respect and admiration in the most apparently demeaning of situations, ultimately baring considerably more than flesh alone.

Fiona Clague
EUFS Programme 1998-99