The once-ubiquitous “Full Monty” formula is alive, well and still irresistible in “Pride,” the fact-based story of an improbable alliance between gay-rights activists and striking miners in mid-1980s UK that made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday after bowing in Cannes.
Though both groups share a loathing for conservative British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (who was ignoring the AIDS crisis while taking a hard line with the miners), the strikers do not extend the warmest welcome to a bus full of gay-rights crusaders from London who descend on a picturesque village in South Wales.
A union rep (Paddy Considine) sees the value of an alliance, as does a community organizer (Imelda Staunton) and a mild-mannered old miner with a not-exactly-surprising secret (even if the often flamboyant, top-billed Bill Nighy delivers one of the straightest performances of his career). But the rank-and-file is suspicious of and uncomfortable with their would-be allies, and one particularly homophobic local (Lisa Palfrey) joins the tabloid press in labeling them perverts.
But the gay crowd is a determined group who can teach the miners a thing or two about their legal rights to assembly, not to mention their ability to organize fabulous fund-raisers.
Playing a mix of real people and composites, they’re played by a winning group of actors including Dominic West, Ben Schnetzer, Faye Marsay as a lesbian and George MacKay as the film’s main protagonist, a 20-year-old closeted gay man who drops out of college to join the crusade.
Matthew Warchus, a celebrated stage director (“God of Carnage”) who helmed the terrible film adaptation of Sam Shepard’s “Simpatico” 15 years ago, does a much better job with Stephen Beresford’s script, which has its cornball touches but earns an honest emotional response by the rousing end. “Pride,” a bona fide crowd-pleaser that opens in New York on Sept. 26, wears its heart on its sleeve.