Stormy Monday Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Stormy Monday Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 21, 2017

Mike Figgis is probably best remembered for films like Leaving Las Vegas and Internal Affairs, but like a lot of future auteurs, Figgis’ first artistic ambitions were evidently more skewed toward an art other than filmmaking, in Figgis' case music. That may be one reason why at least parts of Stormy Monday, Figgis’ first major theatrical feature, resonate with such authority, though other parts of the film rely on such preposterous amounts of coincidence and overly convenient plot mechanics that any verisimilitude is arguably pushed to the sidelines. Stormy Monday is an odd film from any number of standpoints, not the least of which is its kind of weird blending of supposedly gritty realism with a more dreamlike, patently unreal ambience, something that gives the film an undeniably unique “feel”, but which similarly may keep some viewers at veritable arms length from feeling anything about any of the characters. Figgis’ writing has always been something of an acquired taste (as evidenced by how many of his films have split critics and not resulted in huge ticket sales), and some of Figgis’ more pretentious qualities are certainly on display throughout Stormy Monday. Probably chief among these are the almost comedic amounts of “synchronicities” (an appropriate term, given Sting’s involvement in the film) that manage to group the film’s disparate characters together in what amounts to a shaggy dog story built around the hoary trope of a land grab. (Interestingly, and in another “synchronicity”, the last film I reviewed, Joseph H. Lewis’ Terror in a Texas Town, is built upon this same concept of a corrupt villain attempting to buy up real estate for his own nefarious motives.)

Figgis, who is on hand with a rather enjoyable if surprisingly low key commentary on this new Blu-ray disc, offers some quick cutting in the film’s early going which seeks to establish these different characters, all of whom end up intersecting in perhaps preposterous ways. Brendan (Sean Bean) is in a mall, where he spies a newspaper in a garbage bin. Retrieving it, he turns to the help wanted section and sees a job that interests him. Almost immediately, though, he bumps into a shopper named Kate (Melanie Griffith), sending both of them tumbling to the floor in a decidedly unnatural “meet cute”. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Brendan and Kate are going to meet again, but Figgis provides not one but two kind of unlikely scenarios to keep this potential couple in the same general arena.

The job Brendan is interested in is a janitorial position at a jazz club run by Finney (Sting). Finney is expecting a woman to apply for the job, but when Brendan responds to Finney’s initial rejection with the title of a jazz tune, Finney is intrigued, the two bond (instantly, it might be added) over their love of music, and Brendan has a job. Meanwhile an impresario named Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones) has arrived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the setting for the film, and it’s soon revealed he’s involved in a scheme to buy a rather large swath of real estate to complete a proposed redevelopment. Two more improbable connections are forged when it turns out Kate is more or less Cosmo’s “moll”, while Finney turns out to be the lone holdout resisting Cosmo’s offers to purchase his property.

Already the variant puzzle pieces Figgis has assembled seem overly manufactured, but while the basic plot is hackneyed and relies too much on convenience, the film has an effective mood and some interesting performances. Griffith, probably inarguably the “star” of the film despite its (smallish) ensemble cast approach, was then something of an “it” girl after her turn in Something Wild, and she brings an appropriately waifish quality to Kate, but the character is never really adequately supported by Figgis’ sometimes spotty writing. That leaves Griffith having to rely on moments where, without any dialogue to spout, she tears up or bites her lip in supposed anguish as she attempts to deal with the boorish tendencies of Cosmo or the more nurturing proclivities of Brendan. The three main males in the cast are similarly underwritten, with Brendan especially poorly served by Figgis' emphasis on what's happening "now" rather than what brought the character to this point. There's a comparable lack of back story with regard to both Finney and Cosmo, leaving the central conflict of the film kind of ill defined and therefore lacking the necessary angst and energy.

As is detailed in an interesting featurette included as a supplement on this Blu-ray, northern England’s Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been utilized for a few films through the years, stretching back to relatively early days in the British film industry, but it’s still a lesser known location than places like London. Figgis uses Newcastle’s kind of gritty, blue collar ambience quite well throughout the film, subliminally suggesting a kind of urban decay (that may in fact be in need of redevelopment), while also at least allusively highlighting what was evidently a very real music community in the city (Sting of course hails from there). As Figgis also demonstrated in Leaving Las Vegas, he has a real feel for locale, even when that locale isn’t offered “front and center” all of the time, and Stormy Monday establishes a definite mood and specificity with its Newcastle setting, even if the storyline seems mundanely generalist and uninspired.

Stormy Monday Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stormy Monday is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While not as detailed as some other informational blurbs in various insert booklets, this release does contain the following detail, which has one important fact:

Stormy Monday appears in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 2.0 stereo sound. The film was remastered in High Definition by Cineserve at Deluxe 142 in 2010 and the HD master was provided by Pretty Pictures.

That fact is that this master dates from 2010, and it exhibits some of the issues that newer scans and restoration efforts may have been able to ameliorate. There's some prevalent and actually pretty major wobble during the credits, and later there are occasional and transitory issues with things like warping (one noticeable example occurs during the establishing shot seen in screenshot 18). While the elements are in actually quite good condition, there is still recurrent if slight age related wear and tear. The palette, one of the hallmarks of Roger Deakins' expressive cinematography, makes it through the gauntlet rather well, all things considered, with the film's emphasis on cool blues and occasionally striking primaries like bright reds looking vivid and well saturated. Deakins' use of "magic hour" framings and other effulgent light sources tends to give this a somewhat (intentionally) soft and even fuzzy appearance at times, something that tends to keep fine detail at least a bit tamped down in all but close-ups. As should be expected, the more brightly lit scenes fare the best in terms of overall clarity and detail levels. Some of the dark scenes struggle with some pretty chunky looking grain and compression hurdles (see the left side of screenshot 8 for one example), two issues a newer scan probably could have at least ameliorated if not outright eliminated.

Stormy Monday Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Stormy Monday features a nice sounding LPCM 2.0 track, one that delivers decent separation in some of the musical elements (Figgis utilized his musical training and also provided the score), as well as occasional directionality in ambient environmental sounds. The film ventures out into the bustling urban environment of Newcastle-upon-Tyne quite regularly, and derives some consistent sonic energy from those forays. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and is always well prioritized on this problem free track.

Stormy Monday Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary features writer-director Mike Figgis hosted by Damon Wise.


• Just the Same? Stormy Monday 30 Years On. . . (1080p; 33:15) is an appealing "tour" through the film (both literally and figuratively) by Neil Young (not that one). This includes some short but fun snippets from a number of other films shot in Newcastle-upon- Tyne.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:29)


• Image Gallery (1080p)

As usual, Arrow has also provided a well appointed insert booklet with an essay and stills.

Stormy Monday Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My late father was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and because he was orphaned in childhood, we only recently discovered a trove of relatives there, making me very interested in visiting. Until that can be arranged, though, I can enjoy Newcastle set films like this one and Get Carter, though one would probably correctly assume that neither this nor Get Carter would be the first choices of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Tourist Association in terms of advertising their city to prospective visitors. I have some friends who consider Stormy Monday to actually be Figgis' best film, but I'm in a more ambivalent camp. I find the performances winning, but the story extremely hackneyed, even minimalist, and reliant on too many convenient coincidences. While a newer master probably could have helped the video presentation here, there's nothing too problematic. Audio is fine, and the main supplement is also quite enjoyable. Recommended.