Javier Bardem gives an outstanding performance in this hought-provoking (though occasionally plodding) movie about the effects of unemployment on a group of former shipyard workers.
Javier Bardem gives an outstanding performance in this hought-provoking (though occasionally plodding) movie about the effects of unemployment on a group of former shipyard workers.
Set in the Spanish port city of Vigo, Fernando León de Aranoa's Mondays in the Sun is a touching drama about a group of working-class men who find themselves suddenly unemployed and unwanted in their middle age. Laid off from the local shipyard, the men spend their days at the town bar, where they reminisce, philosophize, and commiserate about their current state. Gruff Santa (a bearded Javier Bardem) puts up a tough front, refusing to sink into self-pity, and occasionally pricking his friends'
hopes. Morose José (Luis Tosar) openly worries about his wife, whom he fears might leave him. That seems to have been the fate of Amador (Celso Bugallo), the oldest of the bunch, who keeps reassuring everyone that his wife will be back any day now from her trip. Meanwhile, Lino (José Ángel Egido) refuses to give up hope of employment, going to interview after interview for jobs being offered to applicants half his age. Presiding over the glum bunch is Rico (Joaquín Climent), the bar owner and the men's co-worker from the shipyard days. Despite its depressing subject and downbeat mood, Mondays in the Sun was a big winner at the 2003 Goya Awards, Spain's equivalent of the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Bardem. The film was also Spain's surprise representative for the 2003 Oscars' Foreign Language film category, nabbing the distinction over Pedro Almodóvar's critically lauded Talk to Her. ~ Elbert Ventura, Rovi
Delicado drama que, com seu elenco coeso encabeçado por um Bardem vigoroso e intenso, funciona como um testemunho do impacto psicológico e moral provocado pelo desemprego numa economia em recessão.
Si Los Lunes al Sol es una película tan humana, tan sensible y tan reveladora es porque hemos visto esos personajes acá nomás, a la vuelta de la esquina.
So I got an A on a paper that I used this film to describe Marxian theory...wow...I am brilliant. The film was great but it was more of a gift because I caught about 50 minutes of it on IFC with the paper being due within weeks, I was lost on how I was to use film or literature in modern sociological theory. I
immediately began to see the Marxian work parallels in the film and throw in some gender role steroetypes and viola an A sociological paper in one of the most challenging classes in my sociology course load. The film does portray the lives of men who are lost when there place of employment closes and the reactions to start over...Bardem as Santa is sleazy, raunchy, but loving and I LOVE it. It is amazing how handsome men look in beards (Bardem sports one and 15 pounds), thanks dad, the eternal hairy man in my life, who is razorlly challenged
May 26, 2008
Marta Isela
This is a story of jaded dreams, and everlasting tomorrows. The film Los Lunes al Sol is brought together with acting mastery and a tale too timeless to forget. The main character Santa and his friends have lost their jobs at the shipyard. Unfortunately for the people of Vigo, South Korea?s cost-effective ships tore
away at Spain?s ability to compete with trading nations at the peak of Globalization. This movie is a brilliant illustration of how to deal with what?s lost. For them, unemployment is simply a means to an end; A way of going through life, even when the road seems different than before. Pride and dignity is immovable and steadfast with the people at the shipyard, however they know it is their way of life to be ? forever changed by the effects of a dog eat dog system.
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