Mona Lisa (1986)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Facing limited employment prospects after a long stint in jail, a British gangster accepts a job as chauffeur to a high class call girl and eventually agrees to help the young woman search for a teen prostitute friend in this human drama from Neil Jordan. The film is best known nowadays as the movie that scored Bob Hoskins his only ever Oscar nomination and his performance is the main reason why the film works. His character is, after all, written as a little bit too much of an innocent naïve for credibility. His complete shock at the perversions of the call girl's clients is unrealistic; same goes for the way he expects his former crime boss to bend over backwards for him simply because he went to jail because he once covered up for him. As mentioned though, Hoskins is excellent in the main role though and manages to give a warm humanity to this hardened yet idealistic and hardly cynical man; his strained relationship with his teenage daughter hits all the right notes too. The film additionally has a surefire interesting twist as Hoskins finds out the real reason why the call girl is so desperate to find her former friend - a twist that comes across extra powerfully since it highlights just how out of touch Hoskins really is with the seedy world around him in which everybody has an ulterior motive almost all the time. Despite his high billing, Michael Caine appears in just a handful of scenes and only makes a limited impression, but in addition to Hoskins, Cathy Tyson (as the call girl) and Robbie Coltrane (as the closest Hoskins has to a real friend) offer fine performances too.

MONA LISA is a classic British film of the 1980s and a film with a great sense of place; one of those movies where you get to see the true London, not the sanitised, Hollywood version. From the high-class dwellings of Kensington to the grubby streets of Soho, here's the capital in all its glory - and there's even time for a road-trip to Brighton (with references to BRIGHTON ROCK) alongside! Locations aside, this is a fine little film, one with a literate script and decent direction by Neil Jordan. Inevitably, the stand-out thing in the movie is the late, lamented Bob Hoskins, delivering a knock-out performance full of vitality and vigour. Hoskins plays a chauffeur who finds himself caught up in a dark and violent world of prostitution and gangsters.MONA LISA is a film which subverts expectations and offers no happy endings. Instead, what we get is a gritty, slice-of-life drama, which at the same time offers up the requisite thrills and spills of the thriller genre (watch out for Clarke Peters as a truly nasty pimp). Alongside Hoskins, we get compelling turns from Cathy Tyson and the reliable Michael Caine in one of his bad guy turns, along with a young Robbie Coltrane, and some brief flashes of violence inspired by TAXI DRIVER. MONA LISA is film-making as it should be: a movie that shines a spotlight on human existence and tells a story about real people, warts and all.

"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.

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.