A title like MONDAYS IN THE SUN (LOS LUNES AL SOL) is misleading. It leads the potential viewer, also called a cinema buff, to believe he or she is going to witness something brimming with life and love and laughter -- something that incites a walk down memory lane, like AMARCORD or something. It's the equivalent of a delicately laid-out trap that has lovely pansies and gardenias but hides a black hole in which not even hope can emerge. See, this is the cheerful story of some down-and-out working-class men who find themselves unemployed. Of course, like most unemployed men, they make great strides to remedy the situation: they drink, they reminisce, they drink some more, they brood, they talk, they drink, they brood and reminisce and reminisce until all you have is one big fat essay on the Art of Stagnancy.True, I know and am fully aware that all realities were not created equal. Some people fight to come out of their situation -- as dire as it may seem -- and even though the road to success from the bottom of the pit might be rather bumpy, they triumph through perseverance. These men -- played by Javier Bardem and Luis Tosar in lead roles -- come across as whiners who would rather do as little as possible and moan about their inability to get ahead. At least, Tosar's character has a little more plausibility: his wife is now the breadwinner which besmirches his own masculinity (and for anyone unaware of Spanish culture, a man's machismo is everything), and the scene where he blows it for her when she goes to a bank to apply for a loan is all too real. It's quiet, it's tense, it's the essence of what destroys a marriage that is now on uneven grounds.LOS LUNES AL SOL is flawed by its own Neo-Realist approach to a subject such as unemployment, but denies its characters the possibility of coming through by making them escapist slobs. There is one moment of devastating horror and it happens twice: one of the men's wives has left (purportedly on an extended vacation). He holds on to the illusion she will return. Bardem takes the friend home who is too drunk to make it alone and realizes his friend is much worse off than any of them thought. It's a grim reality, to see that this is what these men's lives are worth -- abandonment and the inability to cope with reality -- and the best moment of the entire film. However, despite this powerful message, LOS LUNES AL SOL runs too long and is too plodding to sustain its weight, which is heavy.

The Spanish ensemble film Los lunes al sol / Mondays in the Sun deals with a group of former workers who lost their jobs after the factory had to close. Every day they meet in a pub, worrying about future, money and problems in the family.The film has great actors and the director does a terrific job in leading their performances in the most effective way. De Aranoa seems to have a perfect sense for timing, manifested in an inconspicuous but efficient cut. The well pointed, rough and bare dialogues come along as a subtle social criticism. De Aranoa surely can rely on his affectionate, wonderful figuration of the truly believable characters, and the shining, utterly charismatic Javier Bardem proves in here again that he is the doubtlessly best Spanish actor today.

How do you imagine the life of an unemployed without family, possession or future? Dull is certainly one of the answers, but this movie does the utmost of this basic story! It's a great achievement to tell something so boring without becoming itself dull and boring. At some points it is even funny and every minute is well done. Really intelligent script with great actors. Especially the actor of Santos! By far the best way to get a glimpse of a life nobody wants to have. It isn't a movie for everybody, because it isn't an easy popcorn movie. The presence of your mind is required but you will be certainly rewarded with an insight that you'll hopefully never experience.

It is really a pity that such a wonderful, compelling and important film, isn't able to get through to a bigger audience. But however."Los lunes al sol" is very calm and slow but all the more empathetic, touching and above all compelling.The film shows the dull everyday life of a group of jobless deckhands, who try to get their lives back under control. One of them gets goes to job interviews almost every day, but gets refusal after refusal, because is too old. Another one has familial troubles because of his dismissal and another one drowns his frustration in regular boozing.Despite the obvious socio-critical message of it, the film doesn't get polarizing or hostile to capitalism at any time, thanks to the terrific performances of all actors (above all Javier Bardem), and the sensitive script that particularly emphasizes the character's conflicts and their dealing with their situations. The note of the film is not a very political or even cynical one, it is very tranquil and melancholic. The actual brilliance of the film consists in the awesomely empathetic portrayal of the feelings of the jobless persons, that have to get used to the situation, that they are the scum of society from now on.The beautiful soundtrack and the excellent editing and cinematography add to the sad but at times also hopeful atmosphere.It's actually a great pity that no other film before has dealt with such an important issue that affects almost everybody's everyday life today. Michael Moore could learn a lesson from Fernando León de Aranoa of how to combine social criticism and the affected person's fates. I wish there could be more films like this, that let you leave the theater with a comfortable feeling, but that give a thought provoking impulse at the same time.