The Full Monty (1997)

Release date: 1997-09-19
Country: UK|USA
Language: English
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Production Co: Redwave Films, Channel Four Films, Twentieth Century Fox
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: 7.2/10
Length: 1h 31min

Storyline

In the decaying steel mill town of Sheffield in Northern England, friends Gaz and Dave, both now unemployed and on the dole after the closure of most of the town's steel mills, steal scrap metal from the closed mills to supplement their meager income, often with Gaz's twelve year old son, Nathan, on the days Gaz has custody. Still, Gaz is behind in child support payments to his ex-wife, Mandy. When Mandy threatens to sue for full custody in that Gaz can't support Nathan in any way, Gaz, seeing the long line up of women clamoring to get in to see a touring Chippendales styled dance troupe, thinks he can solve his financial and thus custody problems by forming his own male exotic dance troupe with some of his fellow un- or underemployed ex-mill workers. In addition to Dave, he has in mind middle-aged Gerald, their former foreman who has not told his spending-happy wife Linda that he has been unemployed for six months, and Lomper, a mild-mannered security guard who they just met in the ...

Plot Keywords

desperation, working class, male stripper, unemployment, gay relationship, gay love, garden, funeral, fat man, ex husband ex wife relationship, dead mother, brass band, hairy chest, hat, newspaper headline, news report, musician, mother son relationship, mistrust, male underwear

Short Review

The Full Monty finds both pathos and laughs in its farfetched conceit, avoiding the pitfalls of sappiness and shtik. Odds are good you'll exit grinning.