Thoughts on Stormy Monday

Thanks to my friends, I checked out the 1988 British gangster film Stormy Monday, and liked it a lot. It’s the theatrical directorial debut of Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, Internal Affairs, One Night Stand), and stars a young Sean Bean as a guy in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne who is just kicking around with a rough past, and goes to work odd jobs for a well-connected nightclub owner (Sting in a quiet and restrained performance). Melanie Griffith is an American waitress who has some charming meet cutes with Bean, but is connected with Tommy Lee Jones’ sleazy corrupt businessman, who’s in town for American Week, and trying to connect a deal with Sting to take over his business, but Sting’s not a pushover, and has his own backup.

The film has this rough charm to it that I liked, and it was refreshing to see Sean Bean in an early role where he’s the hero and a somewhat nice guy, as a contrast to his later Hollywood career as “U.K. villain who gets killed by Harrison Ford or Robert DeNiro or Pierce Brosnan and gets shot/blown up/falls to his death.” It’s just nice seeing him play someone normal.

Griffith was really sweet and cute in this, and her hair looks like it’s leftover from her punk role in the apocalyptic cult movie Cherry 2000 (1988). It’s also funny to see how in young Griffith I can see where Dakota Johnson got her features.

Sting’s character is a jazz fan, so there’s a couple of really cool scenes of live jazz music playing in his club, and it adds to the neo-noir mood of this film that I really sank into and enjoyed.

There’s a fantastic long tracking shot by cinematographer Roger Deakins following Jones and Sting as they have a discussion about Jones’ sleazy tactics and threats to Sting’s life, that is shot from a distance and pans past columns that I really adored. I also really liked a little sexy quiet slow dance scene between Bean and Griffith in a bar as Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” plays on the jukebox, it’s a nice intimate moment between them before shit gets real again with the crime stuff. I included a scene of Griffith late to her waitressing job and having some cute banter with Bean while taking his order, it’s a nice moment that seems mundane but is fun and flirtatious.