Film festival: The Full Monty

Edinburgh Festival 97

The Full Monty

Like Brassed Off, Peter Cattaneo's bitter-sweet slice of social realism presents us with a bleak post-industrial landscape (here, post-steel Sheffield), a society in which emasculated man's only hope of job security is the living death of supermarket "Security".

Robert Carlyle is an ex-con separated from his wife, who persuades his mates to form a Chippendale-style troupe. As they embark on an odyssey of sun-beds, G-strings and disco-dancing (in one scene, they watch a shoplifted video of Flashdance for tips, but find themselves distracted by the inadequacy of Jennifer Beales's welding skills), Cattaneo lightly touches on Nineties gender politics.

The men's lack of industrial muscle may be matched by their untoned bodies, but as the film builds to its cheeky climax, these unlikely sex objects regain their dignity in the most unlikely of places. Unashamedly crowd- pleasing, this is the kind of well-acted, feelgood character comedy that Britain does best. Screens today, Glasgow Film Theatre 1 (0141-332 8128)