When a producer invests $3.5 million into a lightweight comedy written by a novice screenwriter and directed by a first-time feature-film director, he's not generally expecting a box-office return of $195 million worldwide. Not that he'll refuse the windfall either! This sleeper hit of 1997, The Full Monty, was the work of a young British director, Peter Cattaneo.

Historical Background: Peter Cattaneo was born in England in 1964 and attended the Royal College of Art. While still a student, Cattaneo directed some commercials and made an award-winning music video for Miller Lite. Later, his short entitled Dear Rosie (1990) was nominated for an Oscar. After graduation, Cattaneo began directing for television, starting with two series entitled Diary of a Teenage Health Freak and Full Wax. He directed his first feature film, the made-for-television Loved Up, in 1995. It examined the rave scene and use of the fad drug nicknamed "Ecstasy" and starred Lena Headley and Ian Hart. Shortly thereafter, Cattaneo read the script for The Full Monty written by Simon Beaufoy and immediately recognized the commercial potential in its clever combination of respectful humor and an undercurrent of serious themes. He wasted no time committing the story to film and the four Oscar nominations that it garnered helped to establish Cattaneo as an exciting new talent in the film industry. His next project, however, Lucky Break, was not so well received.

The Story: The story is set in Sheffield, England, an industrial city with a lively nightlife and an economy dependent almost entirely on the steel industry. In the post-Thatcher years, however, jobs have been sharply pared back by automation and Gary Schofield (Robert Carlyle), known as "Gaz", and his cherub-faced and cherub-shaped pal Dave (Mark Addy) find themselves hanging out at the "job-club," playing cards and half-heartedly looking for jobs that they know don't exist. Their chatter is an annoyance to their ex-foreman, Gerald (Tom Wilkinson), who is making a more serious effort to fill out applications.

Gaz is separated or divorced from his wife, Mandy (Emily Woof), but spends time with his boy, Nathan (William Snape), roughly age 11 or 12. It's not exactly what you could call quality time, since Gaz is dead broke, his house is perpetually cold, and he takes the boy along on a minor heist involving the theft of a steel girder from a factory, while the security guard is at lunch. Later, Gaz, Dave, and Nathan pass by a nightclub featuring a bunch of professional male strippers called "The Chippendales." Dave's wife, Jean (Lesley Sharp), has gone there to enjoy the show and Gaz decides to try to retrieve her for his pal. It's a ladies-only show, so Gaz and Nathan have to sneak in through a bathroom window. Dave is too tubby to follow. Nathan is sent to find Jean, but gets distracted by a lot of half-empty beer mugs. Like I said, it's not exactly the epitome of a traditional father-son relationship.

The nightclub is mobbed with perhaps a thousand customers and it occurs to Gaz that there's fast money to be made as a male stripper. Sure it sounds absurd, but these are desperate times. Back outside, Gaz starts working on Dave, to interest him in the idea. As they're walking, they come across Lomper (Steve Huison), a red-headed man who is so down on his luck that the engine of his car had stalled out as he was attempting to kill himself by carbon monoxide asphyxiation. Dave, not realizing what the man is up to, restarts his engine for him. Then, seeing the car filling up with fumes, Dave rushes back and pulls Lomper from the vehicle. Lomper thereby becomes a "mate" (British for "pal") and is soon being integrated into Gaz and Dave's absurd agenda.

They'll need to learn how to dance, so the trio head down to a dance studio. It's ballroom dancing, which isn't really going to work well for a stripper routine, but they spot Gerald, the somewhat older unemployed ex-foreman. Soon, they're enlisting him in their plan. Gaz and Dave even sabotage a job interview that Gerald has landed, to make sure that he's not prematurely distracted, and soon they have Gerald committed to the project.

Being jobless is a source of some distress for all of these men. Gaz is at risk of losing joint custody for his son if he can't come up with his share of child-support. Dave's self-esteem is so low that he can't perform in bed with his wife. Gerald hasn't even told his wife that he's out of work, despite the fact that it's been six months and she's still running up the balances on the credit cards. Lomper has to deal with an invalid mother and his own suicidal urges.

Next, they hold tryouts to expand their group and land Barrington Mitchell (Paul Barber), a middle-aged black man, known as "Horse," but not nearly as well endowed as that nickname might imply. He can't break dance anymore but at least he can still do the chicken! They also add Guy (Hugo Speer) to their group, a man with no apparent talent or dancing ability, but who truly is hung like a stallion. He drops his drawers and the others drop their jaws. "Gentlemen, the lunchbox has landed," says Gaz.

Gaz begins to realize that they're not going to draw much of a crowd, given that all of them lack either talent or Grecian-physiques and most lack both. They'll need to offer something that the Chippendales don’t. Instead of merely stripping to their Speedos, Gaz's group will have to go all the way, which in British slang translates as "the full monty," or full frontal nudity.

There are some riotous rehearsals, as the motley crew practice their moves to the tunes of Donna Summer and Sister Sledge. They shoplift a copy of Flashdance, in order to study the moves of Jennifer Beals. "She's nifty on her pins," says Dave, "but I'm a better welder. That joint wouldn't hold up for day." Then there's the first time they strip down to their skivvies, in Gerald's posh living room and Dave pleads, "Well, no looking, and no laughing, ya bastards." Gerald has second thoughts about the enterprise due to his "standing" and Dave due to his ample midsection. Horse sends away for a penis-enlarger. As they rehearse, their routines are ugly to watch and it's all Nathan can do to hide his anguish and embarrassment for them. It doesn't help matters when three of them are arrested for indecent exposure while rehearsing in an empty warehouse. Guy and Lomper escape arrest by making a mad dash, in the buff, through a series of back yards to Lomper's bedroom, where they suddenly discover a mutual attraction to one another. When the entire caper gets written up in a local tabloid, complete with images from the warehouse security camera, the story serves as free advertisement. The next thing you know, two hundred tickets have been sold for the "steel strippers."

When the big night comes, Gaz gets cold feet, which, I suppose, is better than being cold-cocked. He thought it was to be "ladies-only" in the audience, but there's a bunch of the boys from the factory there as well. It takes a little son-to-father pep talk from Nathan to get him out onto the stage, but hey, that's what father-son relationships are for, are they not? The strip act is performed with aplomb, to the strains of Tom Jones You Can Leave Your Hat On, in front of a howling and mostly sympathetic audience and, of course, ends with the proverbial full monty. And that, my friends, turns out to be the long and the short of it.

Themes: The primary theme is the disastrous influence that unemployment has on self-esteem. Working class is bittersweet under the best of circumstances, but more bitter than sweet when there are no jobs to be had. These men are so desperate for some honest income that they'd rather strip in front of an audience than be without work. The film effectively establishes that joblessness is even more humiliating than public nakedness. Though the men and their attitudes toward women, sexuality, and nudity are amply lampooned, the film maintains a steady sensitivity toward their honest difficulties and insecurities. It's not a vicious kind of film, which it could have been. Ironically, by their willingness to face down humiliation, Gaz and his pals prove themselves to be men in the deepest sense – men of genuine pride and self-respect. They'll do whatever has to be done (a deeper meaning of "the full monty") to make a buck. Their pride in having honest work is far more important to them than modesty.

An obvious secondary theme relates to gender politics and the gender reversal inherent in men stripping for women. When Gaz first visits the nightclub during the performance by the Chippendales, he is surprised to see the women behaving with a degree of masculine aggressiveness and sexist enthusiasm that one usually associates only with men. He even sees one gal make use of a urinal in the men's room, standing up. He leaves muttering about how men will soon be "extincto." "Pretty soon, men won't even exist, except in zoos." Later, the men begin to realize that they will be subjected to the same kind of harsh scrutiny, body part by body part, that men routinely apply to women in magazines or, even, in public. "Her butt's too big," "her boobs are too small," or "she's no better than a 5 or 6", are some examples. "That's different," protests a horrified, Lomper, "We're blokes!" For many women, stripping (or worse) to pay the bills is something they know all about, but it's more of a novelty for men. In the end, the men are treated with nowhere near the level of abuse that six ordinary, middle-aged, chunky housewives would get in front of a male audience, I guarantee you.

Production Values: The Full Monty is nothing profound, but it's a shade better than your average comedy. There's just enough dramatic and thematic context to give the comedy a bit of weight. There're some poignant moments when Gaz is at risk of losing his son, Dave is struggling with impotency brought on by depression, and Gerald is dealing with his joblessness and inability to tell his wife about it. Nevertheless, the comedy dominates the film throughout. The script doesn't strive to reach the status of black comedy, though it might qualify as "gray." The dialog is crisp and thoroughly laced with British slang and obscenities.

The final scene was shot live, on a one-time only basis, in front of an audience of 400 cast members and extras, so the scene has a high degree of spontaneity and authenticity. The performers were genuinely ill at ease and the audience truly amused by the revelations and the men's discomfort. I suppose I should mention, in the interest of full disclosure (no pun intended), that the film audience ends up situated in the "cheap seats" and only sees the final eponymous moment from the backside.

Lest I've left any doubt, be advised that the six male actors involved in the striptease are certainly not what would qualify as "hunks." Three of them are considerably better looking than a group of average men pulled off the street, but the other three might come from that group. So, these actors really put themselves out there, for this film, and risked a degree of personal humiliation. Robert Carlyle brought a nice mix of pathos and innocent enthusiasm to his performance in the lead role. Carlyle will be best known to most readers for his role in Trainspotting (1995), as the crazy guy, but he's also appeared in Riff-Raff (1991), Carla's Song (1996), Ravenous (1999), The World is Not Enough (1999), Angela's Ashes (1999), and The Beach (2000). Tom Wilkinson was very effective as Gerald. I remember him distinctly from In the Bedroom (2001). His other work includes Wetherby (1985), Wilde (1997), Rush Hour (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Patriot (2000), Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Mark Addy gave a touching performance as Dave. He is otherwise best known for an appearance in A Knight's Tale (2001).

Bottom-Line: I was curious about how this film was rated by women vs. men at IMDB. The answer is that women rate it at 7.8 and men only 7.1, but almost four times as many men have rated it as women. Then again, nearly every movie is rated more often by men than women, probably reflecting a difference in level of use of the internet. I suspect this film will please most viewers of either gender. For women, it's a chance to enjoy a little role reversal and partake in the sexism that heterosexual men so frequently exhibit. For men, well, the actors give the six male strippers some real personality, so we don't have to feel they've being treated like mere sex objects (sniff, sniff). These are guys that any man could enjoy hanging out with. The kind of guys that make you want to pull out your tackle and go fishing.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age