The Full Monty

Plot synopsis:
The once-successful steel mills of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, have shut down and most of the employees have been laid off. Former steel workers Gary "Gaz" Schofield and Dave Horsefall have resorted to stealing scrap metal from the abandoned mills to sell. Gaz is facing trouble from his former wife, Mandy and her boyfriend Barry over child support payments that he has failed to make since losing his job. Gaz's son, Nathan, loves his father but wishes they could do more "normal stuff" in their time together.
One day, Gaz spots a crowd of women lined up outside a local club to see a Chippendale's striptease act. He gets the idea to form his own strip tease group using local men in hopes of making enough money to pay off his child support obligations. The first to join the group is Lomper, a security guard at the steel mill where Dave and Gaz once worked. Depressed, Lomper attempts suicide, but is rescued by Dave who convinces him to join the group. Next, they recruit Gerald Cooper, their former foreman at the mill, who is hiding the fact that he is unemployed from his wife. Gaz and Dave see Gerald and his wife, Linda, at a dance class and recruit him to teach them some actual dance moves.
The four men hold an open audition to recruit more members and settle on Horse, an older man who is nevertheless a good dancer, and Guy, who can't dance but proves himself to be well-endowed. The six men begin to practice their act. Gaz then learns that he has to pay £100 in order to secure the club for the night. He cannot afford this, but Nathan gets the money out of his savings. When they are greeted by two local women while they put up posters for the show, Gaz boasts they're better than the real Chippendales because they go "the full monty". Dave drops out due to body image issues and gets a job as a security guard at Asda. The others do a public rehearsal at the mill in front of some female relatives of Horse, but are caught mid-show by a passing policeman, and Gaz, Gerald and Horse are arrested for indecent exposure.
This costs Gaz the right to see Nathan. Lomper and Guy manage to escape arrest, and go to Lomper's house where they look lovingly at each other, starting a relationship. Gerald, meanwhile is thrown out by Linda after bailiffs arrive at their house and seize their belongings to pay Gerald's debts, resulting in him having to stay with Gaz. Later Gaz goes to Asda and asks Dave if he could borrow a jacket for Lomper's mother's funeral. Dave agrees and also decides to quit his job and they go to the funeral together. Soon, the group find the act and arrest has made them famous.
They decide to forgo the plan, until Gaz learns that the show is sold out. He convinces the others to do it for one night only. Gerald is unsure as he has now got the job that Gaz and Dave earlier tried to sabotage his interview for, but agrees to do it just once. Initially, Dave still refuses, however re-gains his confidence after encouragement from his wife, Jean, and joins the rest of the group minutes before they go on stage. Nathan also arrives with Dave, having secretly come, and tells Gaz that Mandy is there but she would not let Barry go with her.
However, Gaz himself refuses to do the act because there are men in the audience (including the police force members who watched the footage of the security camera's recording of them earlier), when the posters said it was for women only. The other five are starting the act when Nathan orders his father to go out on stage. Gaz, proud of his son, joins the others and performs in front of the audience and Mandy, who seems to see him in a new light.
The film ends with the group performing on stage in front of a packed house, stripping to Tom Jones' version of "You Can Leave Your Hat On" (their hats being the final item removed) with an astounding success.

Tags: cute, comedy, entertaining, sentimental

Review:
Peter Cattaneo's direction was inspired, and he knew the right angles to use (check out the scene when the lads were auditioning new members, particularly Guy) for perfect comedic effect.I admit that some of the sub-plots needed more fleshing out, particularly between Gaz and Nathan as well as Gerald and his wife.
And as many times as I've seen the movie, I don't know much about Guy other than his love for Singing in the Rain and his obvious natural endowment that took the breath away from his mates!The music was terrific as well.
One thing I've always appreciated in British films is that the actors look like Real People.
As in other British films, the characters seem real, like people we would know if we lived in their town.
Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy combine with a great support cast to bring one of the freshest comedies in years to the big screen.
Set in Sheffield after the great 'City of Steel' Days, there are more people in the dole queue, than out at work.Struggling for money the pair decide that if the Chippendale's can get the kit off and make a packet, then why can't they.
Now all they need is to learn how to dance, learn how to overcome there fear of the Full Monty and sell some tickets.This film is a very funny view of a struggling community in what was once a thriving city.
I grew up watching Bristish shows like "Mr. Bean" and "Are You Being Served?" I love those shows and I love this movie, I think it is one of the best comedies ever made.
We all loved the movie right off...My sister bought it and we watched it with captioning, and boy had we missed a lot of lines at the theater and funny ones at that!
It's like watching a movie with English being your second language, and I B.S. you not!The English working class has a different way of expressing themselves--its so charming and hilarious...I think Robert Carlysle is brilliant "Gaz".
Besides being a light comedy, the film in its subtle way makes an effective commentary on the wages of capitalism, or, to be more direct and precicee, what happens when capitalism takes wages away.
But the movie's gentle suggestion is that not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, but so is self-respect...and in following through with their plans, they gain a LOT more than just 2000 pounds each.Robert Carlyle is good as the anchor of the piece, always pushing and planning and cajoling and begging and even stealing, as need be, but it's the rest of the cast that makes this movie work -- from Tom Wilkinson as a manager ashamed to tell his wife he's lost his job to Mark Addy as a man who's so ashamed of how fat and unattractive he is, he's driving his wife away right down to Hugo Speer and his joyful "let's have a blast" attitude."The Full Monty" is a gem of human comedy aimed not at the gut but at the sense of hope we all carry.
Could never have been made in the USA; if they do an American remake, I'll tell you now, it won't come close to this great time at the movies..
Charming film from the other side of the pond about a bunch of working class blokes at the ends of their ropes who decide to stage a strip show for cash.
The gimmick is that they promise to go "the full monty," much to the delight of their wives and girlfriends."The Full Monty" was a minor sensation in 1997, and started a movie trend that exists to this day: the little indie film that could and makes it all the way to the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards.
I don't know that it's quite that good, but you could probably fit three "Full Monty"s into one "Titanic," the film that DID win Best Picture that year, and if I had to pick one of them to watch again now, I'd pick the naked dudes over the sinking ship any day.Grade: A-.
The Full Monty is the type of movie that surprises you from the get go, even though you know the general idea of the plot (6 unemployed steelworkers decide to become strippers), that's because all of them become so lovable you're rooting for them to succeed at the end of the movie in a big way.The story mainly focuses on three of the six.
This movie deserved all the attention it got, and it's too bad the film lost the Academy Award for best original screenplay (Damn you Good Will Hunting!
The unemployment line scene - where each "dancer" unconsciously works through their routine when their dance number is piped in - is an all-time movie sequence.
Recently, I saw her again after almost a year of absence, and over dinner she said, "I can't stand in the line at the bank without thinking about The Full Monty and 'Hot Stuff'." That's how much staying power the film has.Not to get too analytical (a requirement for an English major), I loved the mixture of metaphor, irony, and pathos.
Wrinkle cream, cling film, sun beds, sexual "enhancement" devices...the men turn to them all, just as women have forever, and with about the same result.The pathos revolving around Gaz's love for his son, Nathan, and his despair at the threat of losing him made my eyes well up, especially in the scene when Nathan wants Gaz to go swimming with his mother and her smarmy boyfriend.
He even gets a love life, also ironic, for reasons I won't go into here.Some men of my acquaintance announced that the movie was the most depressing thing they had ever seen.
As these flaccid bodies strive to exude "sexiness," director Peter Cattaneo turns their struggle into a blue-collared survival reflex, which yields a thin yet agreeable amount of emotional weight.Robert Carlyle plays a bitter but devoted divorced father trying to meet his support payments so his son will trust him, and Mark Addy just wants to provide for his nurturing wife, who worries about the secret G-string buried in her flabby husband's underwear drawer.Suffering ritual-humiliation for the sake of loved ones, these men pawn their dignity for economic survival.
Tough times and desperation bring these six very different men together for money, and sweetest of all, the love of a child.I came away thinking that the characters in this film were much better off as a result of their experience.
Then there is the immediate downbeat 'cut' to thirty years later and an empty factory in a drab looking area of the world  surely we are meant to laugh, but in doing so you are laughing at great failure and a heartache of epic proportions since so many people lost so many jobs to do with factories as well as mines.Then again perhaps this newsreel footage early on is a reason why the film did so well in America.
At a time when the American cinemas were lapping up 'dark' comedies in Pulp Fiction, Fargo and Go, The Full Monty can certainly be seen as a 'realist' urban drama focusing on respective inhabitants of a certain built up area.
The reason the newsreel introduction is so perfectly placed is because it informs us of the setting, tells us what things used to be like before hitting us with some dark comic timing  we are informed, entertained and then humoured.Then there is the film's primary theme.
British films Chariots of Fire showed us males can be track athletes; Brassed Off showed us men can get together and partake in a brass band and in a few years time, Billy Elliot showed us males can be ballerinas.
There is social commentary, yes, and it's well made (in my opinion, obviously), but the bigger message, I think, is that when life sucks - and it can do, most of the time - you don't have to give in to the feelings of utter despair.You can fight back, you can refuse to be bowed, and for everyone in the awful predicament of being willing and able to work but being unable to find anyone willing to give you a chance, there is the possibility of finding a ray of sunshine, even if only temporarily, in an otherwise grey and depressing condition.And it's those little rays of sunshine that help to give you hope.
A laugh here, a giggle there, a bit of extreme silliness once in a while - it all helps keep you sane.And that's what is enjoyable about this movie: it's the story of a group of men trying to stay sane even if it means losing some of their dignity in the process.
This movie has real pathos and features first-rate performances by all the members of the strip-tease group -- but especially Robert Carlyle as Bazzer.
Among those forced to go on the dole are Gaz Schofield (Robert Carlyle) and his friend, Dave (Mark Addy), whose lives become especially complicated by their current status of `unemployed.'  Unable to make child support payments, Gaz is about to lose visitation rights with his son, Nathan (William Snape), and losing his job has left Dave emasculated, leading to problems with his wife, Jean (Lesley Sharp).Then one night the `Chippendales' show arrives in town, and for the `ladies only' performance, the local venue is sold out, at ten quid a head.
Who will be able to come away from this film NOT at least humming Hot Chocolate's `You Sexy Thing,' or thinking about the scene in which `Horse' (Paul Barber) `auditions' to Wilson Pickett's `Land of 1000 Dances?'  Or when the guys, after having rehearsed for awhile, are on line at the employment office when Donna Summer's `Hot Stuff' comes on and they can't keep still.
Cattaneo takes a positive approach to negative issues, wraps it all up in humility, humanity and hard work, and in doing so he gives his audience a film that is highly entertaining, emotionally involving and unforgettable.Heading up the ensemble cast, Robert Carlyle is right on with his portrayal of Gaz.
And, in Dave's case, especially, Addy manages to elicit empathy without making him unduly sympathetic, which affords him, as well as the others and the film, the ability to maintain a semblance of dignity in the face of adversity, which is essentially one of the main tenets of the story.Also turning in an effective performance is Tom Wilkinson as Gerald, the former foreman of the steel mill, now reduced to being just one of the guys, and on the dole along with the rest of them.
The point is it's a funny movie with fine acting, which at the same time manages to be endearing and warm-hearted.
No Rip Off. Social comment about the sad lot of the northern English working class may not seem the basis for a great movie, but this one has pulled it off (in more ways than one).Not a classic by any means and has a fairly predictable plot, but the wonderful self-denegrating, unpretentious nature of the movie make it worth watching more than once.
THE FULL MONTY was one of those movies that HURT to watch: by the time I left the theater, my face was actually sore from smiling.
(I wish I'd thought of doing something like this when I was really down and out- and in better shape...) Robert Carlyle has long been one of my favorite actors- in part because of this movie (not to mention HAMISH MACBETH or 28 WEEKS LATER); he's great as the down-and-out father forced to do SOMETHING to distance himself from The Dole and all its attendant stigma.
The movie focus on funny characters, not the sad story.The funny part is this would probably work for real!.
The story, The characters, all the things in this film were very good.
That is the sad and real side of story but comedy the overrides the seriousness making it a funny and true film.
The Full Monty is a film about men's emotional short-comings, and these were explored in an engaging and profoundly touching way.The script does have some hilarious moments, often verging on hysterical at times, but it never fails to be touching as well.
I even liked the music, You Sexy Thing, Make Me Smile, Rock & Roll, We are Family and the Full Monty all to name a few were really pleasant and entertaining.And of course, the acting is brilliant, every single person gives an honest and appealing performance.
Mark Addy, Lesley Sharp, Tom Wilkinson and Hugo Speer give terrific support and manage to be really likable.Overall, wonderful film, definitely worth seeing if you like movies that are both funny and touching.
Still they manage to go through the movie with comedy instead of this movie being completely serious movie, because that couldn't work as well as this does.One thing I especially like about this film is that the men all look different and they're not all as fit as the blokes on Magic Mike.
The women cheer them on to go for "the full monty" - total nudity.I have not seen "Magic Mike" yet, but that and this are the only two films that come to find that focus on male strippers.
Coming from England I must admit to being biased perhaps...But i thought this film was sooooooo bloody funny I still cry laughing every time i see it 50 runs later...Brilliant acting amazing down to earth characters...Its  a must see if you want to know about the real england and its people.....
The Full Monty is one of my all time favorite movies.
It's a touching story with great characters, and you find yourself rooting for these guys the whole time.
It was still fun and had some laughs, but it also had some seriousness and the story of a man wanting to spend time with his son was good.
I watched "Full Monty" directed by Peter Cattaneo first time when it was released ten years ago in 1997, became a surprising hit, and was nominated for several Academy awards.
I think every boy would dream about having a father like Carlyle's Gaz - he is more like a buddy, not a father.Did I mention that after seeing the movie first three times I bought a Donna Summer's CD?
I suppose depending on who you are, that will get you to watch the film or disappoint you."The Full Monty" is a straight-forward British comedy accompanied by some family drama.
Then there's plenty of British humor to go around as these men deal with humiliation and desperation.The biggest problem with this film is its 90 minute run time.
The humor is also somewhat limited and there's definitely potential for more."Full Monty" is a nice, quick, change-of-pace comedy that takes a good idea and does a solid job of turning it into a film..
I first saw this film when at 13, I illegally snook in to watch the 15-rated movie.
It doesn't fail to make me laugh even now when I have seen it a million times and sorry but that Sheffield accent is to die for!!!You have to see this film, you actually have to watch it because it is just amazing I have never met anyone who doesn't like it, I make everyone who comes round to my house watch it!
By the end of the film I was just as engaged in the story as I was the first time I saw it.
'The Full Monty' is a very funny 90s comedy with some classic British humour.
The main two, played by Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy, are very funny together - a dumb but likable duo who can't seem to get anything right.Despite the silly plot, this is a film with a big heart.
Anybody who likes British humour who hasn't seen 'The Full Monty' should definitely give it a watch..
With his best friend Dave (Mark Addy) he is reduced to stealing steel girders for spare cash.When they stumble upon women lining up at a working men's club to see The Chippendales, they hit upon the idea of doing their own strip show but go fully naked.They get a group of six together but they really cannot dance and some of them do not have the physique.
Only Gerald (Tom Wilkinson) their former foreman has dance training and sets about teaching the rest the dance moves.As time goes on the men bond as they deal with issues such as being in debt, without a job or relationship problems.In some ways the film was inspired by The Boys from the Blackstuff without too much of the black comedy and grimness although it does have raw and rowdy humour.Robert Carlyle does a good northern accent more chipper than Chippendale who is confident until the time to start the show comes.
Robert Carlyle can be so many sorts of characters, such as horror, He creeped me out in the beach and other films, programs.Peter Cattaneo done a great job to create a unique men stripping, drama, comedy.
This mix of comedy and drama is almost perfect, and like in any English film the acting is absolutely brilliant.
Begbie was one of the more frightening movie characters of recent years and in this film he comes off in totally the opposite way.
THE FULL MONTY isn`t a comedy at all it`s a dour social drama about the disenfranchisement of men with some funny bits that you`ve already seen in the film`s trailers.
Unemployment is high, people don't know how to make money and then they see something as an easy way out.There is language and some nudity to be taken into account, if you feel they matter in any way.The actors involved have done quite a few good movies and especially one interaction between Wilkinson and Carlyle might not have worked with a weaker set of actors.