Stormy Monday

A slick noir piece set in Newcastle, England (yes, Sting's hometown), Stormy Monday is a little-known but beautiful film by Mike Figgis (also the director of "Leaving Las Vegas"). When guileless Irish drifter Brendan (Sean Bean) arrives in town, he befriends a shady nightclub owner Finney (Sting) and falls in love with a ill-used waitress, Kate (Melanie Griffith). As the film's off-beat, strangely elliptical plot advances, all three characters find themselves at odds with a villainous real estate developer, Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones), who is busy snatching-up an entire portion of the city.... more

How can this movie be so unknown and underrated? The cast is swell: Tommy Lee Jones makes a terrifically creepy/suave villain -- he's worth the price of a rental alone. Melanie Griffith is quite appealing (and how often is that the case?) Sean Bean has one of his earliest starring roles, and he's great, and Sting rounds things out in a role tailor-made for him: jazz club owner. The movie is full of clever moments and artistic touches. If you like a good suspense drama with romance, and especially if you like nightclubs and slick jazz, this is a fine choice. The director, Mike Figgis, later... more

One of Mike Figgis' first films, Stormy Monday fuses an intriguing mix of American greed, crudeness, and innocence with British coolness, toughness, and civility. But added to the mix, interestingly enough, is a Polish element (more on that later). One American is Melanie Griffith as a cocktail waitress and vaguely defined moll (or former moll) of the other, Tommy Lee Jones, a ruthless moblike businessman who plans on making Newcastle, England his own--commercially, of course. (Political takeover is a little hard to imagine circa 1988). Melanie emits a sexy blend of sensuality and... more