Yet they are. Secrets & Lies and Brassed Off!, both set in working-class Britain, were moderately successful, while The Full Monty was a bonafide hit. Does this represent some kind of trend? Will "EastEnders" surpass "Melrose Place" in popularity? Not bloody likely. No, this is most likely just a rare conjunction of British comedies accessible to the American audience, as much as I would be delighted for it to be a trend. There may very likely be a long streak of flop imports in the near future, but that is irrelevant. The fact is that The Full Monty, while partly an examination of laid-off steelworkers, is mostly a comedy about a bunch of out-of-shape guys who take all their clothes off.
The film begins with one of those public-information films that Monty Python used to make fun of: Sheffield, city of the future. It's twenty years later, though, the steel factory is closed, and Gaz and his friend Dave (Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy) are stealing a couple of girders from it. It's a depressing life: as far as they can tell, women don't need men at all anymore. Of course, there's those Chippendale dancers that Sheffield women pay 10 pounds a head to see.... One thing leads to another, and soon they are auditioning other dancers and being choreographed by their old foreman, Gerald (Tom Wilkinson).
But it's not quite that easy. Despite being kicked in the teeth by business and government, they still have a certain amount of pride to overcome. Gaz is embarrassed to be taking money from his son (William Snape), Gerald is too proud to tell his wife he's been unemployed for half a year, and Dave is just embarrassed at the idea of showing his overweight body off. If the film is just a little didactic in showing how each man overcomes his pride and learns "a little bit about life and himself," the abundant laughs more than make up for it.
While much of the comedy is low (we are, after all, laughing at a bunch of unattractive Englishmen dancing in g-strings), it doesn't make the laughs any less satisfying. There are also numerous funny vignettes, as when Dave unwittingly assists a man attempting suicide, or when Gaz and Dave somehow trap themselves on a car in the middle of a canal. Best of all are the scenes of needling when the would-be dancers' plans are revealed: everyone wonders if they really will go "the full monty." In the end, though they had to overcome pride to reconcile themselves with the idea of becoming strippers, it is pride that makes them go all the way.
The cast is one of the strongest put together this year. As Gaz, lanky Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) is a new British everyman: imagine Michael Caine as an aging punker. Mark Addy (familiar to viewers of the BBC comedy "The Thin Blue Line") is very funny as a good-natured man, slightly dense, whose sense of pride and self-respect changes from moment to moment. Tom Wilkinson has perhaps the most difficult role, as a man who overcomes class differences to participate in the stripping, but who still holds onto some shreds of dignity. William Snape is enormously appealing as Nathan, Gaz's son and reason for living. Not a role in the whole film is poorly acted.
The best comedy of the year so far (admittedly a slow one for comedy). I would be thrilled to see anyone connected with this film nominated come Oscar time, but especially actors Carlyle, Addy, and Wilkinson. As it is unlikely that they will ever have another chance, how fitting it would be for these men to be nominated for a role where they literally give their all.
Three-and-a-half stars
Copyright 1997 by Dale G. Abersold
