Mondays in the Sun
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: July 25, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A triumph of quiet realism, a piece of sophisticated, subtle filmmaking that is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Read full review
88
PremierePeter Debruge
Bardem plays the part with all the pent-up animal rage of a young Robert De Niro. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
There's a dignity to Mondays in the Sun that manages to keep the film buoyant, helping to keep all the despair at bay. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The performances are relaxed. The open-ended, vignette-like structure of the filmmaking sometimes imitates the movement of weary, life-worn men nursing liquor. Read full review
80
VarietyJonathan Holland
A tough-but-tender movie driven by perfectly modulated performances, an accomplished script and naturalistic dialogue, all at the service of an oft-told message about overcoming circumstances. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
To the patient viewer, the rewards are many, especially Bardem's performance. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Bardem injects a shaggy, compassionate humor throughout, aided by a wry and moving ensemble cast and co-writer/director Fernando León de Aranda's eye for the offbeat. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The story's rambling, meandering style is just right for the melancholy subject being explored, and all the acting is excellent. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
The tired and washed-out Spanish town is a fitting backdrop for these men - a place where life moves on around them at an uninspiring pace. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
There's also enough laconic humor, warming camaraderie and hopeful stabs at dignity to keep the story from assuming the glum gunmetal gray of its setting on the coast of northwestern Spain. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A quintessentially European, methodically paced and intelligent slice of life. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Loach makes a working metaphor of the old ant-and-grasshopper story, but the film's images are what echo the loudest. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
By turns wry, rueful and explosively funny. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
This slow, episodic film is held together by the galvanic presence of Javier Bardem. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Imagine "The Full Monty" without any of the feel-good uplift, and you'd be pretty close to capturing what this bitter -- and often bitterly funny -- film from Spain is all about. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It's a long and relatively underdramatized film, but it's powerfully true. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The lack of sentimentality and rhetoric is refreshing. It's a grown-up movie about some harsh facts of life. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Tinged with sadness, and despite overstaying its welcome a wee bit, remains an anthem of insurrection, melding its political and humanistic truths into an almost dreamily subversive film tinged with humor and some small hope. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Though buoyed by excellent, unflinching performances, this melancholy drama reflects the dismally monotonous lives of its subjects just a little too well. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It is intensely involving at the outset, but it faces an insoluble problem: The story, like the characters, has no place to go. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Neorealism it ain't, but if you have a sufficiently long attention span, there are moments of laugh-out-loud absurdity that are worth the price of admission. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Like Fellini's "I vitelloni," this Spanish-French-Italian coproduction is a bittersweet epic about frustration and relative inertia, though with a somewhat older and wiser group of layabouts. Read full review
60
Film ThreatRory L. Aronsky
Not an incredible disappointment, but it could have used some more work in making us remain curious about these characters and what their next course of action would be. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Fortunately, no one seems to have clued Bardem in on the game plan, and the fierceness and complexity he brings to his role nearly saves Mondays In The Sun. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Repetitious, uneventful and, in the end, dull. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Bardem, given the only fully fleshed-out character to play, is a marvel to behold...If only he had found a more soulful, less didactic movie to be plunked down into. Read full review
40
Village VoiceDennis Lim
It's forgivable, and even appropriate, that Mondays itself suffers from a certain lack of definition -- a drifting, repetitive dead-endedness that, at the inconclusive finale, shows no signs of abating. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Midway, Mondays in the Sun becomes as dull as a day with nothing to do. Read full review
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