4. Great Cast & Characters
One aspect of a great film is a great cast. The acting talents seen in Stormy Monday make the film all the more appealing, and the cast members were essentially the main drawing point of the film. The success of the cast brought the film, and with it Tyneside, to a global audiences attention. Leading Hollywood names Tommy Lee Jones and Melanie Griffith essentially headline the film, and take leading roles in the plot. Griffith was nominated for an Oscar (for her performance in Working Girl) during production of Stormy Monday, and the attention helped the promotion of the film. She takes the female lead perfectly, capturing the emotive turmoil and moral imbalance of the character. Tommy Lee Jones fills the role of central antagonist Cosmo, and brings his usual persona to the unusual streets of Newcastle. The character of Cosmo is representative of the outside threat to the locality of Newcastle; bringing exploitation and violence under a veil of financial aid to the hard-hit region. His character is sinister and manipulative, and his performance in the film is a lesser-known highlight in his lengthy and successful career. However, the strongest characters in the film are both British. Current big-name star Sean Bean was in his early acting career when he appeared in the lead role in Stormy Monday. The character which he portrays, Brendan, is a down-and-out nobody. He is charming, however, and smart. The world he is brought into in Stormy Monday is as new and unexpected to him as it is to us, the viewers. Sean Bean plays the role with a fresh take, holding his own amongst bigger names. His character Brendan may not be local to Tyneside, but he assimilates easily, and he is ultimately the hero of the film.