Film Reviews

Mondays in the Sun

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Javier Bardem
• Details: Spain / 113 mins (15A).

Sacked from their jobs as shipyard workers, a group of men led by Santa (Bardem) scuffle through life as best they can, bickering, seeking part-time work, drinking too much in a local bar and struggling to keep a lid on their simmering pride. While the set-up is similar to North of England tales of life on the dole such as Brassed Off and The Full Monty, Mondays in the Sun is a grittier, more realistic take on the consequences of unemployment. Marriages suffer, alcoholism takes hold, and self-worth is eroded to the point where the men become shells of their former selves. Nonetheless, director Aranoa (who co-wrote along with Ignacio del Moral) laces the men's antics with a barbed black humour; reduced to baby-sitting to earn a few bob, Santa offers a foul-mouthed Marxist interpretation of a bed-time fairytale to a wide-eyed six-year-old. Excellent performances also help the story along, particularly those of Bardem and Tosar, but the narrative lacks a central conceit - such as the stripping motif in The Full Monty, or the band's solidarity in Brassed Off - that might afford the audience a light at the end of the tunnel. Here we have nothing more than individual acts of stubborn refusal to lie down and suffer quietly - although, if that's enough to sustain these losers in life's lottery, perhaps it should be enough for us too.

Review by Declan Burke