Mona Lisa
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Movie Reviews of Mona Lisa
Movie Review: Classic British Crime Noir
Summary: 5 Stars
One thing you do not expect from a crime thriller is a tender heart at the center. George(Bob Hoskins), after doing a seven year stretch for the crime boss Mortwell(Michael Caine) is given a job chauffeuring Simone(Cathy Tyson), a high priced call girl, to her assignments. At first there is mutual distaste for one another followed by a grudging respect. Simone eventually feels a level of safety with George that she requests a favor of him. It's from that point in the film that George developes a fascination that borders on love for Simone. Make, no mistake about it. This is not "Never on Sunday" or "Pretty Woman". This is a no-holds-barred examination of the prostitution and porn industry. George serves as the audience's conduit to this netherworld of vice. Despite George's exterior toughness lies a certain naivete as well as a sweet nature. A scene that most demonstrates this is when George breaks down emotionally to Simone at a seaside resort sporting novelty sunglasses and professing his love for her after a perceived betrayal. Hoskins is no less than brilliant in expanding on his tough guy persona that he assayed so well in "The Long Good Friday". Tyson falls in the classic femme fatale mode reminiscent of Lana Turner or Lauren Bacall. Caine is scarifying good here making you stand on edge in the few scenes he appears in. Also good in an abbreviated appearance is Sammi Davis as a teenaged prostitute. "Mona Lisa" is intricately plotted with surprises at every corner. Discretion forbids me from giving away key plot points but this movie would make a terrific double-bill with director Neil Jordan's "The Crying Game'. The two films contain eery paralells despite being made six years apart.Movie Review: Classic Gem
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the finest British films of the 1990's.Bob Hoskins gives one of the best performances of his career. Michael Caine and Cathy Tyson give great performaces as well.The story is bittersweet,and very enjoyable.Get it,you'll love it.Movie Review: A Bob Hoskins must see
Summary: 5 Stars
This was my first exposure to Bob Hoskins- and I've been a fan ever since!And it was quite a change to see Michael Caine as a truly nasty guy! Acting is superb, and plot is refreshing. Music was very good too.Movie Review: What Acting, What Directing!
Summary: 5 Stars
A typically British made movie - atmospheric, fantastic acting and directing that uses the silences as much as the dialogue. A screenplay that is totally believable for it's time.Movie Review: So What's A Feller to Do?
Summary: 4 Stars
Upon its 1986 release, "Mona Lisa" was proclaimed a masterpiece of the British crime film drama; it brought the Irish-born Neil Jordan, who'd both written and directed it, to the forefront of working British film directors. Reminded everyone of Nat King Cole's great song. Won its star Bob Hoskins an Academy Award nomination, as well as the Cannes Film Festival and British Academy Awards. It's since been recognized as one of the big three of British noir crime dramas: Michael Caine made "Get Carter," Hoskins made "The Long Good Friday;" together, they made "Mona Lisa."
The movie has frequently been compared to Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," for many reasons. Hoskins stars as George, typical, low-wattage East End thug, just getting out of jail after doing seven years for crime boss Mortwell (Caine). George thinks he's owed; Caine gives him a job chauffeuring high priced hooker Simone (Cathy Tyson). Hoskins is expert, as ever, in conveying the controlled violence in George's soul; he also conveys as well as possible the character's surprising naivete. Caine is the cool, even-tempered, joking, fierce villain we saw in "Get Carter;" there's a ten-second bit where he allows Mortwell's mask to slip; we see him with bared teeth, closing in for the kill. Tyson, on her way to a television career, does a good job as Simone, with her own problems. The young Sammi Davis, best known for "Hope and Glory,' stands out as an exploited young drug-addicted prostitute. And the economy-sized Scots comic Robbie Coltrane, before his television success as "Cracker," seems wasted in a pointless subplot, as George's best friend.
Still, to me, the most apt comparison to this movie is actually the movie of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." We have Coltrane, as Hoskin's friend, often asking him to "Tell me a story, George." That's a direct quote from Lenny (Lon Chaney Jr.)'s frequent request to his George, Burgess Meredith. And we have cockney George buying a rabbit for Mortwell, we're never told why, but Lenny had a pet rabbit in "Of Mice and Men." However, on a first viewing after several years, what was most striking to me about this film was how mannered the script is, how careful to alternate dramatic highs and lows. And how unlikely it is that Hoskins' character could be quite so naive, after an adult life spent the shady side of the law, and a seven-year jail stint.
The seamy London underworld of homelessness, drugs, and kinky sex is well-captured in this movie; the powerful photography gives us the feel of some of the city's meanest inhabitants and streets.
Otherwise, this movie builds upon another of Jordan's signature themes: the love of a man for an inappropriate woman. George is evidently greatly mistaken in believing that a character as damaged as Simone can be talked into a future of love, marriage, and a baby carriage. The same theme pops immediately to mind in at least the eight other feature films, that Jordan wrote, and/or directed, that I've seen. Many viewers will be familiar with the recent "Breakfast on Pluto." Liam Neeson, an Irish parish priest, fathers a child upon his housekeeper, whom he actually loves. In "The End of the Affair," Ralph Fiennes tries to continue seeing Julianne Moore, but she's sworn off him, in a prayer to God to save his life during the London blitz. In "Interview with the Vampire," the seven-year old vampire played by Kirsten Dunst, will never, in all eternity, be mature enough for Tom Cruise's undead character. In "The Crying Game,"well, the transvestite Dil will never be the woman Fergus thought she was. Then there's "The Good Thief:" Nick Nolte's old enough to be a grandfather to that movie's teenage prostitute. In "We're No Angels," Robert De Niro, masquerading as a priest, is flummoxed by Demi Moore's Molly. And "The Miracle," an adopted Irish teenager unknowingly falls in love with his biological, and fully-aware, mother. And then there's "High Spirits," Peter O'Toole at his least disciplined, a silly little haunted castle movie. Poor Steve Guttenberg finds himself in love with a ghost in that one. So what's a feller to do?
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