User Reviews

Neil Jordan's 'Mona Lisa' is a great film that was sadly forgotten over time, even though Hoskins got an Oscar nomination for the film. 'Mona Lisa' follows a basically good guy whose made some bad choices George (Bob Hoskins) and his return from prison. Shunned from his wife and some of his old buddies, George feels kind of unwanted but gets a job from his old boss (Michael Caine) chauffeuring a call girl (Cathy Tyson) around at night. The call girl and George form a bond, while the story turns into violence, crime and George and the call girl's search for a young innocent teenage girl forced into prostitution. In my opinion, 'Mona Lisa' is one of Jordan's best films if not his best. Hoskins is absolutely amazing in his role, while Cathy Tyson and Michael Caine provide solid performances as well. Clarke Peters (who you may know as Detective Freeman from HBO's brilliant dramatic series 'The Wire') is also in this as Cathy Tyson's evil and psychotic pimp. For all you indie fans out there, rush to the Blockbuster near you to rent 'Mona Lisa' (make sure it's not 'Mona Lisa Smile', that movie is a tad bit different.) Most likely, you'll find a lot to enjoy and/or admire about this little British indie gem. Grade: B+

"Mona Lisa" is a moving and memorable combination of the British crime film and the character study, produced by George Harrison's company Handmade Films, and serves as a showcase for some very impressive performances. Top billed Bob Hoskins, in particular, in his Best Actor Academy Award nominated performance, is the person we follow through a convincing depiction of the seamy underbelly of London, a land populated by pimps, prostitutes, and mobsters such as the nasty Mortwell, played by Michael Caine. Hoskins's George is a low level mob member getting out of prison after spending seven years there, emerging into a world unfamiliar to him. He's given the initially thankless task of acting as chauffeur for high class prostitute Simone, played by the lovely and amazing Cathy Tyson. But before very long, they start warming up to each other, and the balance of the movie charts their evolving relationship. Ultimately George decides to do Cathy a favour by finding a long lost acquaintance of hers, but this leads to less than ideal circumstances for all involved. Director Neil Jordan, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Leland, has created a compelling if deliberately paced drama that's much more character driven than action oriented, although there are some brief bursts of violence here and there. The film also has quite the sense of humour at times, much of it coming from the engaging Robbie Coltrane as George's good friend Thomas. Thomas likes to create art using plastic spaghetti (!), and there is a nice light touch brought to all scenes with Hoskins and Coltrane, which prevents this story from ever being too much of a downer, although for the most part "Mona Lisa" is grim and gritty stuff, with fairy tale and film noir elements emphasized. By the end, George realizes how much he's been manipulated by his femme fatale Simone. Jordan completely pulls us into this vivid environment, and gets nice supporting performances from Kate Hardie as Cathy, Zoe Nathenson as Jeannie, and Sammi Davis as May, as well as a sufficiently slimy portrayal by Clarke Peters ('The Wire') as vicious pimp Anderson. (Trivia note: look for Kenny Baker, always to be best known as R2-D2 in the "Star Wars" franchise, as a boardwalk busker.) Fine music by Michael Kamen is a plus, as well as soundtrack selections including Nat King Cole's performances of "When I Fall in Love" and the title tune. Worth seeing for fans of the crime film and of the cast & crew, "Mona Lisa" is potent entertainment. Eight out of 10.

Bob Hoskins made two widely popular movies in the 1980s and this was one of them. Having seen the other, "The Long Good Friday," I wasn't expecting too much but was pleasantly surprised. Hoskins, just out of the slams, is hired to drive a high-end black hooker, Cathy Tyson, from one wealthy client to another. He grows to care for her and when she asks him for a favor, find a strung-out young girl named Kathy, a former roomie of hers, he agrees. He searches the seedier places of London until he finally digs her up. She very young and very hooked. Robbie Coltrane is Hoskins' friend, and Michael Caine is a sort of procurer. The ending is both distressing and violent -- distressing because some of these characters are fully fleshed and we feel we've come to know them.

The film is quite nicely done. The score makes much use of Nat "King" Cole's ballad, Mona Lisa, evoking mystery, and it's appropriate. The composer has worked what seem to be endless variations of the first four notes of the theme into the score. We hear it in the background often, in minor key, or played exclusively on double bass, or burnished by horns. Those four notes insinuate themselves into the incidental music so often that a listener loses the sense that they are the introduction to a pop song and they come to have an ominous functional autonomy, disembodied from the simple tune that prompted it. They become their own song.

The acting is fine. Bob Hoskins is an essentially moral guy, short and unprepossesing, who first shows up on screen wearing an echt-1970s bell-bottomed leisure suit (he's been in for seven years, remember) and carrying a bouqet of flowers that his wife, berserk with anger, tells him what to do with. His gradual attraction to his passenger is nicely laid out, as are the reasons for his occasional displays of violence. He's a sensitive guy, but not too thoughtful. A lot of things get by him. But, to be fair, they get by the viewer too.

There's an element of humor running through the film, mostly expressed in the relationship between Hoskins and Coltrane, who plays a writer and a sculptor of things made of plastic spaghetti. ("The Japanese have cornered the market.") The dialogue is pretty funny in a low-key way. Hoskins and Coltrane sit watching TV and Hoskins remarks something like, "Remember that guy who was murdered? Well, I did it." Coltrane: "You're not joking?" Hoskins (turning and staring grimly): "I -- never -- joke." Coltrane: "You used to tell that one about the randy gorilla." And here is Hoskins describing his passenger, telling Coltrane that she's not out to exploit him, Hoskins, because "she's a lady." Coltrane: "A lady? I thought you said she was a tart." Hoskins: "Well -- she is, but she's a f****** lady too."

And Cathy Tyson almost beggars description, tall, slender, lithe, not staggeringly beautiful or sexy, but her appeal extends far beyond mere appearance. She's gorgeous in the most personal way. She tends to keep her face down and her eyes lowered, almost demurely, and her voice is soft and low, just above a whisper, although you never have to strain to hear what she's saying because her pronunciation is modulated and precise. It's soothing, in control and at the same time reassuring, the voice of an announcer on a late-night FM station playing nothing but classical music. You could listen to her for hours. You could look at her for hours too, for that matter. Michael Caine doesn't have a big or showy part, but he's so reliable that he's always a pleasure to see on screen. I can't think of a single film that has been damaged by his presence, although he's been in a few bummers.

The photography is perceptive. We get a good deal of local color not only from the London locations but from "the seaside," where everything comes to a head. There isn't a lot of violence. What there is of it is quick and pointed.

See it if you get the chance.

Mona Lisa is a classic 80s low budget thriller that combines raw power with an emotional storyline resulting in an acting masterclass from a virtually faultless cast. Bob Hoskins is mesmerising from the very opening seconds of the film, playing lonely naive chancer George. He has just been released from prison after 7 years for taking the rap for a crime committed by local gangland boss Denny Mortwell (Michael Caine). Caine soon gets George back on the payroll, as an exclusive chauffeur for high class call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson). But George helplessly falls for Simone and gets sucked into her secret agenda for trawling London's seedy underworld - mainly prostitution. The film is a masterpiece from director Neil Jordan - easily his best work to date and has never been bettered - and the cast benefit greatly from an impeccable script. Jordan's ear for dialogue is never more evident than here - especially in Geroge's conversations with his only true friend Thomas (Robbie Coltrane). Anyone who thought Hoskins couldn't better his performance in The Long Good Friday in 1979 should take a look at this. He is simply astonishing and your eyes never leave a single scene he is in. But no review would be complete without paying tribute equally to the unearthed gem that is Cathy Tyson. Bearing in mind she was barely 20 when this movie was shot, she is incredible opposite Hoskins and whilst she has had more of a TV career since, it is surprising (and perhaps a shame) that she has never had perhaps the vehicle or opportunity to scale such heights again. However, Kate Hardie is also deserving of special mention as a fellow hooker, and her great portrayal in this movie has shamefully been totally overlooked over the years. Caine's cameo appearance is also menacingly good, and he plays the seedy villain with chilling ease. Throw in the great location work around London's Soho and Brighton, and a great tune from Genesis, and you get a presentation every bit as high class as Tyson's Simone is meant to be.

After seeing Hoskins in "The Long Good Friday", I was eager to catch another one of his highly celebrated performances. Filling in a similar role as an ex-con looking for work in 1980s London, I found his relationship with a call-girl to be highly effective in the character's exploration of a world he is simultaneously out of touch, but all too familiar with. It is a story that moves along leisurely, as he is soon employed by his employer's worker to find a vulnerable young girl on the streets, and it is here that the film offers a disparaging outlook on urban prostitution, through the annals of both high and low society. Hoskin's character becomes embroiled in an emotional investment beyond his control, and like any Noir protagonist, is very soon out of his league and receiving the short end of the stick.

The ending revelation is effective, but slightly underwhelming when one realizes that his journey was doomed from the beginning, but this kind of set up is to be expected from these sorts of tales. The character development and progression between lead actor and actress is simple, but highly effective.

The cinematography comes across as drab sometimes, but there are many beautiful moments in this film with some detailed choreography and impressive lighting of seedy, smoke filled interiors as Hoskins navigates the Londonian labyrinths.

The ending does feel slightly rushed, but there are so many great moments, and the film has a lot of untold backstory that gives its characters a lot of depth and very realistic insight into human longing. This is a great example of effective exposition that is relayed naturally and not a distraction or disservice to the film. A few choppy moments, but overall 'Mona Lisa' is more than the sum of its parts, and is an entertaining and atmospheric indie flick from Neil Jordan.

After serving seven years in prison, the smalltime criminal George (Bob Hoskins) is released. He seeks out his daughter but his ex-wife does not allow him to talk to her. His friend Thomas (Robbie Coltrane) meets George and gives his Jaguar that he kept for him. George is impressed with the changing in the neighborhood while Thomas explains the new reality. George is hired by his former boss Mortwell (Michael Caine) to work as the driver and bodyguard of the high-class call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson). In the beginning, George is misfit for the position and does not get along with Simone; but gradually he befriends and falls in unrequited love with her. Simone looks for someone on the streets of the King's Cross district (red light district of London in the 80's) and soon she asks George to help her to find the prostitute Cathy (Kate Hardie). George is involved with the underworld of prostitution and is chased by the dangerous pimp Anderson (Clarke Peters). When he finds Cathy, he discovers the connection of Simone to her.

"Mona Lisa" is a melancholic love story in an environment of low-lives and losers in the underworld of London. The beginning of this movie is a drama entwined with romance and ends a thriller. The good-hearted George is a needy small-time criminal, naive in many moments that falls in love with the prostitute Simone. Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson and Michael Caine have magnificent performances. Nat King Cole´s song gives a touch of class to his great film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Mona Lisa"

Note: On 17 July 2018 I saw this film again.

George (Bob Hoskins) gets out of prison but his wife won't let him see his daughter. Thomas (Robbie Coltrane) is his friend from the old days. Times have changed. The only job he can get is to drive high-priced call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson) for local gangster Denny Mortwell (Michael Caine). George and Simone don't get along at first. Simone talks George into looking for young prostitute Cathy but he befriends abused May (Sammi Davis) instead. Meanwhile Denny wants George to find out what Simone is doing with one particular client.

Cathy Tyson is electric in her character. Bob Hoskins is great but his character is conveniently written dumb sometimes. At times, he's too naive like crashing in on one of Simone's tricks. I don't know what exactly he expects to see in that room. Sammi Davis is absolutely heart-breaking. The movie is a little uneven at times but the two leads are great.

I was completely blown away and amazed at how brilliant this film is, and how underrated it's become since it came out. The title is based on the Nat King Cole song "Mona Lisa", which he sings about the famous Da Vinci painting and the mystery that surrounds it - and film revokes around that same painful mystery of a what a certain woman wants, and what she has experienced.

The film opens with that song, with the male lead character, George walking to his daughter's house after his release from prison. Looking for work as a chauffeur for his gangster boss, he is appointed to a high class, sophisticated black prostitute, Simone, to drive her around. She is annoyed at first by his appearance, but slowly begins to trust him, fitting him into new clothes. But as soon as she has faith in him, she eventually drags him in to a dangerous pursuit and rescue of a young girl, forced into prostitution. Led into the underworld of porn, sleaze, clubs and street mayhem, George, who unfortunately falls for Simone, questions whether his job is worth it or not and will he or Simone could survive it.

One of the many themes of this movie is the unrequited love of Simone, a beautiful hooker who cannot be possessed, that George develops, and the difficult subject of underage forced prostitution and sadism. Bob Hoskins shines at the top of his acting game as George, showing both fierceness as well as sensitivity to the role, making it a perfect match and a well deserved Oscar nominated portrayal. Cathy Tyson was also perfect as the Mona Lisa - like Simone, and Michael Caine appears as the ruthless king pin Mortwell.

Adding to the mix is the great music, the theme song by Genesis and the dark atmospheric look of London's night spots. All this made me want to see the film again and again, thinking about something different that I saw in it each time. In my opinion, the key to a good movie is wanting to see it again right after it finishes. It's just too bad Hoskins didn't win the Oscar and Cathy Tyson disappeared without a trace over the years. Although it's sometimes bleak, it's a gorgeous piece of art, just like the painting.

MONA LISA (5 outta 5 stars) Every now and then I have to watch one of my favourite 5-star movies just to remember what a truly GREAT movie looks like. This is one of my all-time faves... with incredible, top-of-the-line performances from Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine (playing a scary bad guy) and Cathy Tyson. Hoskins plays George, just released from prison after taking the rap meant for his old boss, Mortwell (Caine). Mortwell knows he owes George something but doesn't really think that much of his criminal talents so he gets George a job driving one of his high-class prostitutes (Tyson) from job to job. Soon, George is smitten with this tough, gutsy lady-of-the-streets. Simone, sensing that George is a kind-hearted soul who will do anything for her, gets him to try and track down another young hooker friend of hers who has gone missing. George finds the young woman, incurring the wrath of Mortwell and setting himself him for an emotional upheaval at the film's climax. Masterfully done with great dialogue. The film manages to be funny, heartrending, violent and romantic... sometimes all in one scene.

Set in my home town (London) this film shows a side of life that a genteel Londoner like me barely sees. The up-market prostitution in the big hotels, the down-market equivalent in seedy Kings Cross and the sleazy peep shows of Soho are this film's London.

The film has some great moments - at times you feel some genuine sympathy for Bob Hoskyns' unpredictable nitwit of a character and for Cathy Tyson's stunning up-market whore who has worked her way up from the gutter variety. Some of their scenes together are truly excellent.

Michael Caine plays the stereotype villain - he can do more (Hannah and Her Sisters, A Quiet American) but has little room for manoeuvre in this film.

It is in part seminal - the Kings Cross night scenes must have influenced similar scenes in All About My Mother, the grand house kinkiness scenes must have influenced similar scenes in Eyes Wide Shut. Influencing Almodover and Kubrick takes some doing. It is in part derivative - the Brighton Pier scene, for instance, could have come straight out of Brighton Rock or The Third Man.

It's pacey, it holds your attention, it's good. It's not a great movie, but it does have great moments. Worth a look-see.

Neil Jordan, the writer-director who brought audiences The Crying Game in 1992, created another dark, mysterious story Mona Lisa. In this film, Bob Hoskins stars as an ex-con who can't find work. His friend, Michael Caine, helps gets a job as a chauffeur to a call-girl, Cathy Tyson, but he has ulterior motives. As Bob and Cathy become friends, he gets involved in her seedy world and dangerous problems.

Mona Lisa is a pretty upsetting movie, even though you might not be able to tell from the beginning. It feels like just a seedy drama, but by the end, you'll be extremely shaken up, and depending on how deeply you're affected, you might wipe away a tear. Bob Hoskins swept the Best Actor awards the next year, winning at the BAFTAs, Golden Globes, Cannes, Boston Critics, Kansas Critics, London Critics, Los Angeles Critics, New York Film Critics, Valladolid Festival, and National Society of Film Critics. Normally a character actor, Bob took command of the screen and owned his leading role. Even though he played a hardened ex-con, he was sensitive and felt a range of emotions deeply. At the Academy Awards, Bob lost the gold to Paul Newman's ridiculous, phoned-in performance in The Color of Money.

If you can handle a heavy story set in a less-than-savory environment, you might want to check out Mona Lisa. It's not really the kind of film you'll love and want to watch over and over, but you'll be able to appreciate the acting. Let's put it this way: I own The Crying Game, but I could only handle watching Mona Lisa once.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to violence, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

"Mona Lisa" is one of those weird Neil Jordan dramedies which resound with more ferocity upon afterthought than while actually watching it. Like "The Crying Game", I was left with no immediate impression of the movie, but days after watching it, I became haunted by the film's ingratiating reality. You can tell you're watching a good movie when you can describe it as "atmospheric" without the film trying overtly to reach for that effect.

Bob Hoskins stars as George, and as we first see him, he is lulling along a dismal London apartment neighborhood with a plastic bag and a fistful of flowers. As he reaches his destination, the audience soon realizes what a heartbroken journey this man's life has been. Indeed his good intentions at seeing his wife and daughter are mired by the wife's stubborn, yet understandable reaction of slamming the door in her ex-convict husband's face.

Soon George is hired by the callous gangster Mortwell (Michael Caine) as a chauffeur for the high-class call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson). He is at first repelled by the "tall black tart", as she remarks about his slovenly appearance. In a subplot structured like a revisionist feminine "Pygmalion", George is made over by the prostitute into the appearance of a "gentleman", a contempestuous appearance which only magnifies his good-hearted nature in comparison with the cold-blooded Mortwell.

Soon, however, George and Simone strike a bond seemingly based on a mutual affection for the souls lurking beneath each facade. Simone details to George an old blonde friend named Cathy still working the streets and implores him to rescue her. Jordan builds upon the elements of "Taxi Driver" here and even pays homage to that film in one scene depicting the front end of George's automobile backlit by a seedy district filled with peep shows and pedophiles.

Of course George is starting to fall for his elegant charge, but his feelings are more of a fatherly nature than anything. Simone seems to feed off this affection, as she states that she does no more than drink tea at the behest of her clients and even provides snapshots of her doing so. This is why it comes as even more of a shock to George when he accidentally discovers a porn video featuring Simone at the provocation of things which her innocent demeanor had previously rendered him incapable of imagining.

Much of "Mona Lisa" is built around human desperation, and indeed one can sense that George, like Travis Bickle or Jimmy Stewart in "Vertigo", is attempting to erroneously place the puzzled-together image of the perfect woman into the jagged emotional contours of his love interest. Of course the title implies this, and Jordan reinforces this symbolization with not only the Da Vinci painting and the Nat "King" Cole ballad, but with the incandescent statues of the Virgin Mary which his friend (Robbie Coltrane) collects. This is unarguably Hoskins' best performance, in a career entirely overlooked by even the most driven of film fanatics. After roles in "The Long Good Friday", "Pink Floyd: The Wall", this, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", and the upcoming "Felicia's Journey", one can deduce the sheer emotional vicissitude which compelled him to aim for, let alone attain, the raw power that comprises his characters.

George (Bob Hoskins) is a recently released con. He's still a very angry man and you expect him soon to return to prison based on his anger. Something very odd happens instead. He needs a job and is given one escorting an escort. In other words, he drives around a high priced call girl and is there to help her with her cover and in case anything bad happens. At first, the pair do not get along at all...but soon they form an odd friendship and George looks on Simone (Cathy Tyson) with an almost avuncular manner. Soon, she asks him for a big favor...help in finding an underage prostitute somewhere in the seedier portions of London. And, he soon starts to feel sorry for the girls...many of which really are just girls...just like his estranged daughter. And then you start to wonder...will "Mona Lisa" end up actually being a lot like "Taxi Driver"?

"Mona Lisa" is a very strange film. On one hand, it's super-seedy and sleazy...but it also is, in an odd way, an anti-porn and anti-prostitution film. The problem is that most folks probably will be turned off by the downbeat plot and situations...and its message might just get lost in the process. But no matter what, Hoskins is great in the film...and it is an interesting portrayal, that's for sure. Overall, a film I did not particularly enjoy...watching it through to the end was a chore. However, it was well made. It's a story that certainly is NOT for all tastes and not one to how your mother nor Father O'Reilly nor your kids.



I find it amazing that Disney hired Hoskins for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" shortly after doing "Mona Lisa". It's not because Hoskins is bad...he's quite good in both films. But "Mona Lisa" is an incredibly seedy film set in many of the more sad and denigrated parts of cities. Now you'd think that Disney would avoid an actor associated with such a film with child exploitation and prostitution as themes...but somehow "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" managed to be made and released without a hitch.

Bob Hoskins' performance in Mona Lisa is usually highly praised and spoken in the same breath as his portrayal of hood boss Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday (1980). But apart from their shady dealings within the British criminal underworld, their characters couldn't be more different. Where Harold was an old-fashioned, respectable gangster who had excelled in his business now looking to go straight, Mona Lisa's George is a petty crook fresh out of a long stretch in prison. They are both fascinating, detailed portrayal's, but I feel George is the more complex performance, serving as a sad reminder of the fact that the world lost one of it's finest actors last year.

Thrust back into a world that seems to evolved without him, George manages to land a job driving call girls from client to client. His first customer is Simon (Cathy Tyson), a beautiful, upper-end call girl who clashes with George's bull-headed personality. She gives him money to buy some decent clothes, and he shows up in a Hawaiian shirt and leather jacket. With time, their differences become their bond, and Simone asks George to help her find her old friend, a young girl named Cathy (Kate Hardie), who is still in the hands of a sadistic pimp (played by The Wire's Clarke Peters). Meanwhile, George's old boss Denny Mortwell (Michael Caine) is suspicious of their activities and demands that George provide information on Simone.

The movie doesn't go over-the-top with its depiction of the capital's seedy underbelly, but is far more subtle in the way it plays on our expectations. We're all aware of the presence of prostitutes in practically every town in the country, but do we ever really consider what they spend their money on? How they are treated? Where do they sleep at night? We glimpse the true barbarism behind the red lights here, something that George finds difficult to deal with. However, the film is by no means grim, with an excellent script by director Neil Jordan and David Leland providing many amusing moments, particularly in the exchanges between George and his detective story-loving friend Thomas (Robbie Coltrane).

The performances are excellent all round. Hoskins is a rather lovable lunk, proving to be almost insistent at drawing unwanted attention to himself and Simone; at complete odds with this new world he stumbles across. He's the type of guy who asks for a cup of tea at a strip club. Tyson too (what happened to her?) projects real vulnerability under her mask of confidence and beauty. When the movie shifts from drama to thriller in the last third, Caine becomes a menacing presence with a unnerving lack of emotion. All the filth we witness is all just business to him. By the end, as what I initially thought was a character-driven relationship drama turned into something else entirely, the film had subverted my expectations so much that I had to just sit back and admire.

I liked the window this provided into the sad life of prostitution, with underage girls, sleazy old men, and violence all being shown in turns, and I also liked the cool viciousness Michael Caine brought to his supporting role. However, I could never really buy into the relationship between the ex-con (Bob Hoskins) and the high-class hooker he's been told to chauffeur around (Cathy Tyson), even though they played their parts reasonably well. Maybe that was part of the point, that this guy was deluding himself, but I didn't believe his feelings, and on top of it, the story is told rather lethargically. It definitely could have used more of Michael Caine, as he was the highlight.

Neil Jordan's "Mona Lisa", one of the best films of the 1980's is one of those hidden little gems that once you see it, will change your life forever. Some complain about the slow pace; others about the fake happy ending, but the truth is the powerfulness of the movie lies within these boundaries, not despite.

Bob Hoskins gives the performance of his career as George, just released from prison who finds work as a chauffeur for a high class call girl (played by Cathy Tyson). The two start off as enemies with a hate-hate relationship, but soon they find that they are entertained by their arguments, amused by each other. Eventually George gets involved in looking for a girl Simone used to walk the streets with, and is, as she is afraid, the slave of a dangerous pimp.

Michael Caine, giving the third major performance of the movie, shines in a brief, but memorable role as a very creepy, very corrupt mob boss.

Bob Hoskins deserved the Best Actor Oscar for his performance here, and Cathy Tyson and Michael Caine deserved nominations. A scene set to Genesis' "In Too Deep" with George exploring the underbelly of London's porn shops and strip clubs is perhaps one of the most well choreographed in film history.

A masterpiece of mammoth proportions and full of quiet moments that speak wonders, perhaps the only films that came as close to touching me have been Atom Egoyan's "Exotica" and Mike Figgis' "Leaving Las Vegas".

10/10

Bob Hoskins most likely should have won the Oscar for Mona Lisa, a crime love story if such a thing exists. One of the three best British crime films, the other two being "Get Carter" and "The Long Good Friday". Hoskins is George, a getaway driver fresh out of prison who agrees to be a driver for a call girl. Michael Caine has a smaller yet noteworthy appearance as the mob boss Mortwell. I personally would have liked to seen Caine have more screen time in this but if he had, he might have upstaged the two leading parts and therefore would have been a bad idea as far as the story goes. The viewer likes George, admires George, and some more than others know in a way, what its like to be George. We identify with his plight having been in similar situations albeit with less danger involved. This film does leave the audience with a few unanswered questions. I believe I know what those answers are. I am not one hundred percent sure that I am correct. But I don't think it's important to know all the answers here. The situations are clearly defined and what happens is no mystery either. I will say that the ending is typical of films made in that decade and the decade previous to it. I can't say I will watch this one regularly but it is remarkable.

A longterm prisoner returns to the outside world and is rewarded for his silence by being given a job as a driver for a high class prostitute.

One of those might-have-been movies that falls down because it bites off more than in it can chew. As a portrait of low, high and middle ground vice in London's famous Soho district it is bang on the money, but sadly it has ambitions above its station and tries to be a thriller and chase movie as well.

Hoskins is excellent as our guide and driver (George) and Kathy Tyson (Simone) is his match as the class tart with a heart. Good support is given by Robbie Coltraine (Thomas) although his presence is hardly needed for plot purposes.

Given we are told so little about what has happened before (we only know he has kept quiet on his then boss?) or why he went to prison for it is hard to draw solid conclusions about Hoskins. We only know he is not too bright and has had a child, who still loves him despite everything.

Naturally he falls in love with Tyson and finds that he is being used all over again. Although only to find her drug addicted former girlfriend who is trapped with a violent black pimp. Micheal Caine crops up as a growling sleazy pimp master with more than a passing hint of his Jack Carter from the film Get Carter.

Credit director Neil Jordan for trying to crank-up what could easily be a slice-of-life drama, but the finale gets us in to Martin Scorsese country and cuts across the pacing and thrust of what has gone before.

George (Bob Hoskins) newly out after a stint in prison, agrees to chauffeur Simone (Cathy Tyson) "a tall, black, tart". At first they hate each other, but things can change. So when Simone asks George to find a friend of hers that she lost contact with, he dives into the sordid, underbelly of the sex/prostitution underworld. This film was an unexpected treat, knowing next to nothing about it, save for the fact that I admire Bob Hoskins, Micheal Caine, and Robbie Coltrane all. Cathy Tyson was merely ok in the film & sadly Coltrane is pretty much wasted as Thomas. But both Hoskins and Caine are superb. Sadly, in America at least, Bob Hoskins is known to the non-cinema masses as merely Eddie from "What ever happened to Roger Rabbit?" & "That guy from Hook". This is a shame, as he's an amazing actor

My Grade: A

Where i saw it: Sundance channel