Mona Lisa (The Criterion Collection)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bob Hoskins, Michael CaineBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-03-13
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Mona Lisa (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: A Sordid, Brilliant Film With Three Great Performances
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a sordid and at times brutal film, which also is sad and great. George (Bob Hoskins) is just out of prison, needs a job, and is assigned by the local crime lord, Mortwell (Michael Caine), to be the driver and, if needed, protector, for a high priced London call girl named Simone (Cathy Tyson). George is tough, straight forward and not too smart. His idea of getting to B from A is to simply go through whatever is in the way. He has an ex-wife who hates him, a teen-age daughter who doesn't know him, and it seems just one friend. He's just a foot soldier. Simone is tough, elegant, defensive, but George and she gradually develop a liking for each other based on...what? "Do they ever fall in love with you?" George asks her one night. "Sometimes," she says. "They fall for what they think I am." "What are you?" George asks. "What do you think I am?" she says. George looks at her, puzzled but dead serious. "A lady," he says. Almost without being aware of it he begins in an inarticulate way to fall in love.
As he takes Simone from assignment to assignment she begins insisting that he drive through King's Cross, a meat rack George calls it, where drugged up street walkers and their pimps loiter in the shadows and try to talk up business with any driver who slows down. Simone is looking for someone, a young prostitute she knew who had disappeared. Unwillingly, George agrees to help find the young woman. The search takes him into some of the worst sex establishments of Soho, where drugs and brutal pimps keep the girls, often underage, frightened and in line, and where a customer's taste for inflicting pain can be accomodated. In the background is Mortwell, a criminal who has turned drugs and rough sex into nothing more than a business. George finally finds Cathy, brings her back to Simone and discovers that there is all kinds of love in this world. The conclusion is violent, sad, and finally somewhat hopeful for George.
Three great performances make this movie. Bob Hoskins brings an almost unbelievable combination of violence and honesty to the part. He makes George into a man who just doesn't get a lot of things but who has a great heart. Cathy Tyson brings a lot of assurance to her role. As the story progresses, she makes the character more and more complex. Michael Caine as Mortwell is something to see. He is calm, businesslike and without a single redeeming feature. He is not a man you'd want to cross. When he says, "Life goes on. We can't control it. We can only swim in it," you get a real sense that he sees life as nothing more than excrement .
This is a first class movie. The Criterion DVD transfer is very good. There's a commentary track featuring Jordan and Hoskins.
Summary of Mona Lisa (The Criterion Collection)
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