Mondays in the Sun
by Fernando Len de Aranoa
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DVD details
Actor: Javier Bardem, Joaqun Climent, Luis Tosar, Serge Riaboukine, Tejada Enrique VillenDirector: Fernando Len de Aranoa
Brand: Lions Gate
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Restored, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-10-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of Mondays in the Sun
DVD Review: Solidarity ...
Summary: 5 Stars
... brought down Communism in Poland, but it was no match for Capitalism in Spain.
That's a paraphrase of the joke told by Sergei, the only immigrant among the laid-off Spanish shipyard workers: one Russian says to the other, "Everything they told us about Communism was a lie!" the other worker answers, "Yeah, and everything they [their CP Comrades] said about Capitalism was true!"
Capitalism has failed for these guys. Their shipyard 'downsized' the workforce peremptorily, the workers not laid off went on strike in solidarity, violence broke out - as the shipyard owners very clearly expected and hoped - and now the shipyard is closed and there are no jobs for men in their forties. The most pragmatic of the six friends has collected some severance pay and opened a bar where the other five hang out together, sharing what money they have, sharing their anger, getting on each other's nerves but clinging together desperately, having no other resource. There's no other unifying story in this film; each of them has a situation outside the bar, a life extraneous to their male bonding. Two of them have wives, two have kids, one had a wife whom he pretends will be coming back, one of them - Santa, played by Javier Bardem, the cockiest of the crew, effectively the ringleader - seethes with pride and resentment and dreams of Australia. He's also the randiest, with money somehow or with 'charm' enough to attract a Babe as well as flirting with his barkeeper-buddy's teenage daughter. Santa is half obnoxious S.0.B and half true blue. In the end, he's the mourner and the scorner, the cogent critic of globalization and the ringleader of a stupid prank that leaves the friends all floating adrift on a stolen ferry.
There are some very funny scenes in this film but the humor is always the sort to make you grit your teeth. In fact, the loyalty these six guys show to each other is the only relief from ugliness and failure in their run-down rusted defaced world. And it's the ensemble acting of the six - Bardem, Luis Tosar, José Egido, Enrique Villén, Celso Bugallo, Joaquín Climent, and Serge Riaboukine, all superbly individualized - that redeems the grimness and plotlessness of the film. The daughter - Aída Folch - and the long-suffering wife played by Nieve de Medina are both spot-perfect in their roles. This Goya Award winner was made in 2003, before Bardem became too recognizable to anglophone audiences from his role in 'No Country for Old Men.' It's a handicap for any actor, being recognizable, but Bardem is convincing anyway.
Whatever socio-political relevance you might choose to see in this film, what makes it powerful is the gritty realism of the script and the sympathy each actor coaxes out of us for his character.
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