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Mondays In The Sun

2003, Movie, R, 113 mins

Mondays In The Sun: Review

MONDAYS IN THE SUN | LOS LUNES AL SOL
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Imagine THE FULL MONTY without any of the feel-good uplift, and you'd be pretty close to capturing what this bitter — and often bitterly funny — film from Spain is all about. Times have been tough for Santa (Javier Bardem) and his friends since the shipyard where they all once worked was sold to a Korean concern and shut down for good. The official story has it that the yard could no longer compete in a global market, but Santa suspects that the real plan is to turn the site into expensive waterfront residences. Santa refused to take the initial layoffs lying down and joined the protest against the dismissal of 80 employees, but it made little difference; the yard was eventually closed, 200 workers lost their jobs and now Santa personally owes the city 8,000 pesetas for the street lamp he broke in the melee with police. Angry and proud and a little bit of a jerk, Santa dreams of emigrating to Australia. Most of Santa's friends have fared no better. Jose (Luis Tosar) resents the fact that his wife, Ana (Nieve de Medina), who works a grueling night shift in the local tuna fish cannery, is now the breadwinner, and he's been hitting the bottle pretty hard. Lino (Jose Angel Egido) refuses to admit defeat and goes out on countless job interviews. The outcome is always the same: He finds himself up against kids half his age for positions he's unqualified to fill. Reina (Enrique Villen) has taken a job as a security guard at a construction site, and haughtily informs Santa that there's always work be found. Rather than joining Santa at the sit-in, Rico (Joaquin Climent) rolled over and signed an agreement with management. Having traded his future and the future of his children for a severance package, Rico opened the dreary waterfront bar where Santa and his friends now enjoy their days in the sun, for want of anything better to do. Open-ended and with no easy answers (no climactic striptease here), the film isn't all doom and gloom, but the humor carries a certain caustic truth. Santa, reading a bedtime story to the little boy whom he's babysitting, flies into a rage over the basic social injustice that underlie "The Grasshopper and the Ant." Foolish, perhaps, but the man does have a point. (In Spanish, with English subtitles.) leave a comment --Ken Fox
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