"The Full Monty" (*** out of four) I bet no one on this campus would want to see me strip. It's not that I'm ugly, my mother insists that I'm not, but I'm just not buff enough to show everything for paying fans. A British comedy about unemployed steel workers down on their luck, `The Full Monty,' takes that idea a bit further, and has average looking men stripping for money.
The critics have given extremely high praise to this movie and it has been the art house hit of the year, so going in I expected to see one of the best shows of the year. That being said, I was entertained by the movie and it was well worth watching, but somehow I was a little disapointed. It was reviewed as a non-stop laugh machine, but I found it more sad than humorous. So many places and situations that The Full Monty looked for it's humor are depressing.
That's not to say that the movie isn't funny. There are some of the hilarious moments on screen I have seen in the past few years. A scene involving elves is nearly worth the price of admission, and the finale of the film was perfect. But the movie is laced with so much sadness in the characters; each man seems pathetically beaten down, unwilling to look within himself to find salvation. Rather, they seem content to be ignorant without a job and lie to themselves and others about their situation. One man is suicidal and a momma's-boy, another hasn't told his wife that he's been laid off (and it's been six months). Robert Carlisle, the leader of the men, is stripping to pay child support. That's a noble thought, but he brings his son to all of the practices and to the actual strip show itself. I guess if I were a father trying to convince people that it was okay to see my son, I wouldn't bring him to strip shows. There is a scene where Carlisle interviews a man who is auditioning to be a stripper. The man fails miserably, but Carlisle asks him to stay awhile and bring his children in to watch. "Sorry," he says. "This is no place for me, and this is no place for kids." Carlisle was affected by the words at the time, but he didn't learn anything - he kept bringing his son to the practices. I have a tough time laughing at that.
Another plot line involves a man who believes that he is too fat to strip in front of an audience. To lose weight, he hides in a shed in his backyard and wraps himself in saran wrap while he eats a snickers bar. There's a strange mentality in that - ask yourself, how desperate would you be to lose weight if you wrapped yourself in saran wrap? The Full Monty is an entertaining movie, but I think it's more of a character study than a comedy. Would it be a better movie without the sad elements? No, but I wish it weren't advertised the way it is. The Full Monty Directed by Peter Cattaneo. Starring Robert Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson, Hugo Speer and Steve Huison
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