“The Full Monty” Rated R (for langauge, adult content, and brief nudity) Oct. 6-16, Colonial Theater, Belfast Oct. 6-30, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville

“The Full Monty” storms into America with all the flash and glitter of a runaway disco ball. It is a fun, endearing British comedy that explores the fragile egos and deep-seated insecurities of six Yorkshire men who find themselves jobless and penniless in middle age.

The film begins with a dated promotional video that showcases Sheffield, England, as a thriving industrial town known for its production of steel. “Come to Sheffield,” the video’s commentator suggests, stating that, in Sheffield, one will find a world of opportunity and financial success.

Twenty years pass and we are faced with the reality of what Sheffield has become: depressed, barren, a wasteland of closed mills, missed opportunities and desperate lives. Making a living has become nearly impossible, and to earn a few extra quid, one must be bright, observant — and creative.

Enter Gaz (“Trainspotting’s” Robert Carlyle), a laid-off steel worker, whose ex-wife has sworn she will prevent him from seeing their son unless he starts paying child support. Gaz has no money, but after accidentally seeing a crowd of sexually unsatisfied women going gaga over a performance by the Chippendale Dancers, an idea comes to him: If these blokes can strip for cash, why can’t he and his out-of-work mates?

The problem is that his friends are in midlife, and don’t necessarily have the chiseled, plucked and steroid-pumped bodies over which these women would swoon. Indeed, with the exception of Gaz and Guy (Hugo Speer), the men are desperately out of shape: Dave (Mark Addy) is overweight, Horse (Paul Barber) is a few inches short of what his name would otherwise suggest, Lomper (Steve Huison) is pale and poultry-chested, and Gerald (Tom Wilkinson), the eldest of the group, is over 50 and looks it.

Still, Gaz ignites the men into believing they can perform in front of a boisterous crowd of shrieking women. “We’ll go the full monty,” he says, which, in case you haven’t already guessed, is British slang for baring it all.

This film is at its best when it deals with overcoming the insecurities we all face in a society that champions the god and goddess as aesthetic ideals. Dave, who emerges as the film’s most fully evolved and lovable character, touches us deeply. “It’s not that I don’t want to lose weight,” he says quietly. “I feel like I’ve been dieting all my life. I try, I really do. Problem is that I just love cream crackers too much. Heck, how can I possibly do the full monty in front of so many people when I’m ashamed to be naked in front of my own wife?”

Featuring a sterling soundtrack that includes hits by Hot Chocolate, Donna Summer, Tom Jones and Sister Sledge, “The Full Monty” soars at film’s end with a wonderful, hip-bumping performance that will leave some in attendance remembering a time that once was, and, if no one is watching, perhaps even shaking their middle-aged groove thing.

Grade: B+

Video of the Week “The Devil’s Own” Rated R (for violence, adult content, and language).

Alan Pakula’s fine, brooding thriller, “The Devil’s Own,” opens with an 8-year-old Irish boy witnessing the bloody shooting death of his father by a group of British extremists. The boy matures into Francis McGuire (Brad Pitt), a killing machine who seeks revenge on the British. After a harrowing gunfight that leaves several dead, McGuire flees Northern Ireland for America, where he plans to collect a shipment of Stinger missiles to bring back to his homeland.

Bankrolled by a New York judge, McGuire is placed in the home of Tom O’Meara (Harrison Ford), an honest, Irish cop who soon finds himself immersed in a nightmare that threatens not only his life, but the lives of his family and others whom he loves.

In the wake of Pitt’s public disparagement of this film — he was unhappy with the script, which was rumored to be incomplete at the time of principal filming — the film is remarkably polished and works in spite of its lack of plot coherence.

What grabs you is the acting. Pitt and Ford are very good here, delivering nuanced performances in an arena tightly controlled by Pakula’s steady hand. With Margaret Colin as Ford’s wife, and Treat Williams as the sleazy munitions dealer, this film transcends the stigma of being a typical Hollywood action blockbuster by becoming something altogether deeper than what we originally expected. See this.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.