Film: 'Full Monty' will charm your pants off

My father believes that the true test of whether a movie is a perfect ten or merely a nine and a half is if you have the urge to see it again while watching it for the first time. This summer's movies were disappointing--especially those attempting to be comedies dealing with gender politics, like the cute but vacuous My Best Friend's Wedding and the acerbic--but not really funny--In the Company of Men. That is why The Full Monty is so welcome; it's a genuine comedy, as well as a fresh take on gender, and it definitely passes my father's test.

The Full Monty opens with the grainy footage of a vintage promotional film entitled Sheffield: City on the Move. Technicolor frames depicting all the luxuries of a fast-growing urban economy shoot across the screen as an enthusiastic narrator informs us that all of these comforts are a result of Sheffield's growing steel industry. As the patriotic music of the film dies down and we jump 25 years later, Sheffield is no longer the booming industrial paradise depicted in City on the Move. In fact, jobs are sparse and the men who used to populate the factories now spend their days waiting for work at the less-than-helpful Job Centre or trying to deal with the stress that being on the dole has placed on their lives.

When Gaz (played by Robert Carlyle of Trainspotting fame) finds out that his ex-wife is trying to get sole custody of their son, Nathe, he determines to make the 700 quid he needs for child support by any means necessary. Inspired by a Chippendale show that has recently come through town, Gaz and his friend Dave team up with four other down-and-out ex-steel workers and decide that they are going to make the money they need by putting together their own strip show for women-only audiences. During the hilarious pitfalls and twists that follow, the men gradually discover that what seems like an easy way to make a buck (or pound) turns out to contain a whole set of unanticipated difficulties. Even taking off their clothes in a graceful and erotic manner is a lot trickier than they expect, and proves to be potentially dangerous. Despite their endearing qualities, these men don't look like guys who should be paid to get naked, and the women in town aren't ashamed to tell them so.

Though Gaz is the frontman of the group, this is an ensemble film; the chemistry between the actors is easy and natural. I wanted to take them and their amazing British accents home with me at the end of the show. They are all so engaging and enjoyable that it is often difficult to decide who you are going to watch during the scenes when they are all on screen. Each one displays just the right amount of confidence melting into just the right amount of terror as his character realizes that he might have bitten off a little more than he could chew. No actor is too greedy (none of these men are Al Pacino) and no one, neither as a performer nor as an actor in the film itself, undermines other performances in an attempt to be the audience's favorite. There is a pleasant nonchalance to the way the movie is shot and structured (reminiscent of The Commitments at several points), and although we know little about the details of some of the men's lives, we would definitely have them all over for dinner at the end of the film.

Although The Full Monty has all the qualities of a laugh-out-loud comedy, I am reluctant to classify it as simply that. On one level, it is a funny story about six working-class men who decide to strip for money. On another, it shows how these same men feel when they can no longer be the breadwinners society expects them to be. The movie deals with gender on a variety of subtle levels but maintains a light touch throughout, largely due to a witty script with a scarcity of trite lines. As Gaz and his mates find themselves suddenly removed from the all-male labor-oriented normality of their lives, they respond by choosing a temporary vocation that is most commonly reserved for women. They unconsciously take on the problems typically associated with womanhood, but deal with them in a typically male way. Thus, gender is comically and creatively subverted throughout. As Gaz laments at the beginning of the film, "In a few years [men] won't exist. We're not needed anymore. Obsolete. Dinosaurs. Yesterday's news." This sentiment, as well as the various side plots dealing with emasculation by unemployment, is tempered by a touch of humor that saves the movie from anything even approaching sappiness. For these unlikely six, the true test of the social construct of masculinity becomes whether or not they are man enough to bare "the full monty."

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