Stormy Monday is the 1988 feature film debut of director Mike Figgis. Starring Sean Bean, Tommy Lee Jones, Sting and Melanie Griffith it is an atmospheric noirish thriller. The notable jazz soundtrack is also by Figgis. Being set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne the film is something of an homage to Get Carter. 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mike Figgis (born February 28, 1948) is an English film director, writer, and composer. ... Shaun Mark Bean (born April 17, 1959) is an English actor from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. ... Jones on the cover of the DVD for U.S. Marshals Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Oscar-winning American actor and director. ... Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born 2 October 1951), usually known by his stage name Sting, is an English musician from Newcastle upon Tyne. ... Melanie Griffith at Cannes, 2000 Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957 in New York City) is an American film actress. ... Newcastle upon Tyne, often shortened to Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough situated on the north bank of the River Tyne, in North East England. ... Get Carter is a 1971 British crime film, directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Caine as Jack Carter, a gangster who sets out to avenge the death of his brother. ...

Plot Summary

A young Irish man Brendan (Sean Bean) arrives in Newcastle seeking work finding employment in a jazz club owned by Finney (Sting). There is some suggestion that Finney has past connections with organized crime but is attempting to leave these behind. Two gangsters arrive to make Finney an offer he cannot refuse for his Club but Brendan overhears them and warns Finney who then turns the tables on them. At the same time Newcastle is preparing to host a visit from a group of American investors that it hopes to engage in a grandiose regeneration project. Kate (Melanie Griffiths) a waitress has been recruited to service the delegation. Kate and Brendan meet and fall in love. Amongst the visiting group is Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones) a corrupt business man who we learn uses Kate as a prostitute to secure business deals. It is Cosmo who has been putting the pressure on Finney as the Club stands in the way of his plans for the city leading to an eventual conflict.

Trivia

The production was initially a low budget project funded by Channel 4 and British Screen. When the film attracted American financing it was suggested that the film be recast with American actors. Both Melanie Griffiths and Tommy Lee Jones' careers were in a dip at the time and agreed to take parts at a lower free. Between the time of the film being shot and its release Working Girl was released and Griffith's became an Oscar winning star. This secured Stormy Monday greater attention on its US release helping revive interest in Lee Jones and propel Figgis and Bean to Hollywood. Channel 4 is a public service television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ... Working Girl is an Academy Award winning 1988 American romantic dramedy film which tells the story of a Staten Island secretary, Tess McGill, working in Manhattan whose ideas are stolen by her boss, Katharine Parker. ...