Too long and very gloomy, this sequel still manages to produce emotion. And then what a pleasure to find the band, 25 years later!
« Seven prime ministers and eight Northern England revitalization policies later…From the first seconds, the tone is set: things are not going better in Sheffield! The social breakdown stemming from the Thatcher years, recounted in The Full Monty in 1997, is far from being repaired. The former workers who were victims of deindustrialization are still struggling, like Gaz, which has never found a stable job. He survives in his trailer and has another child – a teenage daughter – whom he doesn’t really care for. It’s not much better for Dave, Gerald, Horse and the rest of the gang, who languish in this idle part of the country. All have remained friends and meet in the little café run by Lomper… But the future has nothing more to promise. Gone is the “feel good” side. The Full Monty, la sérieno longer have any illusions.
Disillusioned, disenchanted, as if washed away by three decades of disastrous social policies, Simon Beaufoy wrote a very gloomy reunion, which has above all the ambition to show the left behind of liberalism.
We must recognize the screenwriter’s audacity not to have given in to the easy way. Of not having brought out “the big game”, by being content to recycle in a serial sauce the ingredients which had made the success of the film. The English author clearly wanted to breathe something new into his social painting. Except that without humor, and also without vigor, our heroes no longer strippers (there is never any question of that in the series) end up carrying around their spleen for six hours, over small, very anecdotal intrigues. Fortunately, the band is still as endearing and still manages to generate beautiful moments of emotion. The finale, in particular, is overwhelming and is seen as a perfect farewell to the troupe who, in any case, no longer have the heart to bare themselves.
