Mondays in the Sun

Inspired by real laid-off shipyard workers desperately clinging to a sense of personal dignity while entering their third year on the government dole, this melancholy Spanish import is thick with powerful, understated, deeply empathetic performances--which the film needs, because it's hard to feel sorry for a bunch of welfare cases who sit around drinking and moaning while barely even trying to find new jobs. Perhaps not being familiar with the particulars of the Spanish economy is a major disadvantage to fully understanding the characters that populate this film--which swept the 2003 Goya Awards--but writer-director Fernando Leon de Aranoa doesn't seem to provide much reason beyond pure frustration and lack of momentum for his handful of sad sack laborers to spend much of their lives in a bar. The impeccably poignant Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls, The Dancer Upstairs) radiates volumes of pain, resentment, and sadness in the lead, earning surprising sympathy for his resentful, disheartened character; but tilting at the system while spinning in place can only take you so far, in cinema as in life. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include a subtitled 26-minute making-of documentary and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a much lauded if somewhat disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)