A different kind of desperation drives the scruffy heroes of the hilarious British comedy The Full Monty to dance, but it's just as potent--and just as enthralling. The shut-down of a Sheffield steel mill has left dozens out of work, and if the workers don't get on the dole, petty scams and outright lies are the only keys to survival. Everything looks bleak until the enterprising Gaz (Robert Carlyle) whips up an outlandish scheme. Every woman digs the Chippendales shows that sashay through town, right? Gaz will go them one better. He'll turn his equally desperate mates into a troupe of male strippers--men who aren't afraid to show the ladies "the full monty."

The idea seems doomed, especially when the burly blokes strap on thongs and start shaking their booties--a sight that scores belly laughs every time. (As an audition piece, Serge Gainsbourg's lubricious "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus" has never sounded loonier.) The beauty of Simon Beaufoy's script is the way it makes the men's nutty decision not only believable but logical. As daft as the notion sounds, these characters' motivations are sound and often touching: They're protecting their kids, their homes--and with a refreshing lack of macho bluster, their masculinity. Baring it all starts to seem more brave than foolish. As show time approaches, the director, Peter Cattaneo, has us rooting for every member, no pun intended.

It helps that the actors--led by Carlyle, who has the young Cagney's brazen energy and roguish charm--are such a scroungy band of underdogs. As a stiff ex-foreman who pretends he still has a job, the veteran character actor Tom Wilkinson makes his gruff rigidity moving; Mark Addy scores as a pudgy pal driven to despair by his lack of self-respect. Child actor William Snape plays Gaz's wary son with just the right note of skepticism. The supporting actors and bit players all seem to have been rounded up in a pub crawl, and their blunt, eloquent faces only add to the movie's appeal.