Modeled after Touchstone's surprisingly successful Sister Act (1992) and other fish-out-of-water, performance-rooted comedies that followed in its wake, The Full Monty is perhaps the best of this mostly undistinguished mini-genre. Its story, about out-of-work steel workers in South Yorkshire's Sheffield so desperate for cash that they develop an act as male strippers, is thoroughly predictable but also richly character-driven and eminently likeable.

Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The World is Not Enough) stars as Gaz Schofield, a divorced steelworker reduced to stealing scrap girders from his now-abandoned factory to supplement his meager unemployment checks. This dead-end source of revenue strains his relationship with son Nathan (William Snape) and and ex-wife (Emily Woolf) seeking full custody of the boy.

Inspired by the large throngs of women flocking to see a touring Chippendale Dancers company, Caz hits upon the idea of forming a local male strip act with fellow ex-coworker Dave. Dave (Mark Addy) is a self-consciously overweight married man worried that his obesity is affecting his marriage.

The pair are soon joined by four more reluctant but financially desperate men. Bitter ex-foreman Gerald (Tom Wilkinson) is too ashamed to admit to his wife that he's been laid off, and for the past six months she's continued to live a lifestyle they no longer can afford. Less important but still colorful are suicidal former security guard Lomper (Steve Huison); Horse (Paul Barber), a 50-something black man whose breakdancing days are behind him; and Guy (Hugo Speer), a well-endowed, muscular and barely closeted homosexual.

The film plays out all the predictable ramifications of their decision along with a couple of surprises. The men are anxious about displaying their flabby bodies before hoards of screaming women and around one another. They practice in secret, hiding their plans from their various wives and friends, and most have no sense of rhythm and their nervousness compounds the problem of trying to choreograph anything like professional dancing. Dave is particularly ashamed about his big gut, Horse is distressed that his penis doesn't live up to the black stereotype, etc. There's a funny scene where the group watches Flashdance for inspiration, but all Dave can do is complain about what a bad welder Jennifer Beals' character is.

Ultimately, The Full Monty succeeds with audiences because the high stakes for all concerned are believable and identifiable, and the basic likeability of the characters and the actors playing them. This is perhaps best exemplified in Gerald, an initially unpleasant and surly character gradually humanized in Simon Beaufoy's screenplay as it becomes clear that hapless Gerald is drowning in the shame of unemployment and growing debt.

And though predictable, The Full Monty generally avoids the obviousness and cheap laughs of similar American comedies. It's also more adult, gently but honestly touching on issues of gender roles and sexuality, as well as the problems of struggling working class families who, not coincidentally, had so often been the heroes of those great British comedies of the past.

Video & Audio

Fox first released The Full Monty in May 2002. The new two-disc "Fully Exposed Edition"** adds a lot more audio options and extras. The 16:9 enhanced widescreen image (at 1.77:1 approximating its original 1.85:1 release) is sharp though it contains a surprising amount of negative dirt, some of it perhaps dating back to when the original negative was first cut. Color and contrast are excellent.

There's a plethora or audio options, partly due to the fact that little snippets throughout the original soundtrack were relooped to make the Yorkshire dialect and slang less impenetrable for American moviegoers. The redubbed U.S. version is available in DTS, 5.1, and Dolby Surround mixes, while the original U.K. release version comes in a Dolby Surround mix only. Also included are two English subtitles options: one for the American version, one for the original British audio. Additionally, there are Dolby Surround mixes in both French and Spanish, as well as Spanish subtitles.

Extra Features

Supplements new to this edition can't be faulted; there's a ton of material, almost all of which is excellent. Disc One's extras include an Audio Commentary by Director Peter Cattaneo and Actor Mark Addy, and a second Audio Commentary by Producer Uberto Pasolini. There's Deleted Footage with optional commentary by Peter Cattaneo and Mark Addy and an Original Publicity Campaign section offering 11 minutes worth of trailers, TV spots, pay-per-view ads and even a marketing featurette.

Also included are 16:9 interviews with the cast, sound bites really, from the time of filming. This cleverly inserts footage of the actors with mini-bios and filmographies on the right-hand side of the image. Finally, a Music Machine option allows viewers to watch the film's music highlights, though buying the soundtrack CD would seem a more practical option.

Disc Two's supplements include an extensive making-of documentary in 16:9 format running 101 minutes, broken down into the following sub-featurettes though watchable as "play all" also: "Developing the Script," "Finding the Director," "Focus on Sheffield," "Anatomy of a Score," "Stocksbridge Brass Band Blues," "Song & Dance," "Editing," "Translating English to English," "The Success and Its Aftermath," as well as "A Bigger Picture - A Look at the British Film Industry in the '90s." Only the last is disappointing, as it features only clips from The Full Monty and cries out for something more all-encompassing.

Finally, a nice little insert / booklet offers additional information about the film, along with a chapter list.

Parting Thoughts

The Full Monty is no more or less than a charming little comedy that deservedly found a big audience. Fox's "Fully Exposed Edition" really gives average viewers more extras than they probably know what to do with, but fans of the film will be pleased.

** This reviewer for one is already sick of the gimmicky monikers being applied to double-dip releases: "Martial Law Edition," "Family Fun Edition," "Global Warming Edition," etc., etc. How about "Totally Redundant Edition?"

Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's new three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel.