FULL MONTY, THE Peter Cattaneo, 1997 Our rating: 4 For ladies only: Robert Carlyle THE FULL MONTY is a winner of a comedy about a motley crew of six unemployed men who try to earn some money as male strippers. It uses its absurd premise to create a surprisingly heartwarming tale of the relationships between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and lovers. Gaz (Robert Carlyle) and Dave (Mark Addy) live in Sheffield, England, where a once-thriving steel industry has disappeared. Both men are among the unemployed. Gaz has joint custody of his son Nathan (William Snape), but will lose the boy if he can't raise 700 pounds quickly. Dave's marriage is going sour, and his only job prospects are security shifts at the type of convenience store where Gaz regularly shoplifts. When the men notice that the Chippendales have sold out a local club, the wheels begin turning. The men decide to form their own strip troupe. Soon, they recruit four more men who are equally destitute and desperate, and rehearsals begin. They're a goofy-looking bunch, all shapes and sizes, and not great dancers, but they have a certain charm, and when the local women learn that, unlike the Chippendales, these guys plan to take it all off, word starts to spread. A policeman stumbles upon their rehearsal space and the men are arrested for indecent exposure. The incident makes them the talk of the town, and when they arrive for the show, the club is packed with excited men and women. The audience cheers as the men strip down and finally reveal all. As the men throw away the final piece of clothing, police caps are held in strategic places. The stripping premise is a terrific source of humor, but THE FULL MONTY is not merely a "high concept" comedy. THE FULL MONTY has its share of emotional themes: Gaz tries to win back the respect of his son; Dave hopes to get some spark back into his marriage; and their former boss, Gerald (Tom Wilkinson), tries to keep his dignity even as everything he owns is repossessed. After a while, the act of stripping stops seeming ridiculous and outrageous and starts to appear brave, confidence-building, and surprisingly wholesome. When the men's wives and Nathan are out there cheering the strippers, it's hard to think of the act as sexual. Instead, it's liberating. The performances are uniformly excellent, with Carlyle leading the way with his sensitive portrayal of Gaz. The role is completely different from those he had in TRAINSPOTTING (1996), PRIEST (1994), and RIFF-RAFF (1991), and he's an outstanding actor. The inclusion of Nathan's nasty stepfather turns Gaz's ex-wife into an unnecessarily antagonistic character, but otherwise the characterizations are rich and multifaceted. The soundtrack, mixing 70s disco, traditional stripper music, and contemporary hits, is right on target. The rearview freeze-frame that comprises the film's last image is so utterly brilliant that it caused spontaneous outbursts of cheering in many theaters. This perfectly realized ending underscores how few movies have truly satisfactory finishes. As in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969), an unlikely predecessor to be sure, the freeze-frame here turns the men into heroes. The film's true triumph is that its happy-go-lucky air is so infectious that we never even question why so many women would pay to see these average-looking men take their clothes off. It just matters that they're rooting for them. They care about them, and the audience of THE FULL MONTY does too. (Nudity, sexual situations, extreme profanity.) Tell us what you think! Academy Award Nomination: Best Picture Academy Award Nomination: Best Director - Peter Cattaneo Academy Award Nomination: Best Original Screenplay - Simon Beaufoy Academy Award Nomination: Best Original Musical or Comedy Score - Anne Dudley Country of origin: U.K. Genre: Comedy Color or b/w: Color Production Co(s).: Redwave Films; Fox Searchlight Released by: Fox Searchlight MPAA rating: R Parental rating: Cautionary; some scenes objectionable Running time: 90

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