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 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.

Going into this, I was expecting an alright film with a strong performance by Bob Hoskins. Boy, was I so very wrong. Hoskins himself more than exceeded my expectations, but the real surprise was how powerful the film itself was. Like a lot of my favorite films, the premise is simple; George (Hoskins) is fresh out of prison and gets a job as a driver for Simone (Cathy Tyson), a high-class call girl. It's an easy setup for a crime thriller, when George inevitably takes a fancy to Simone and will do anything she asks, but it's what they do beyond that which takes the film to another level. As a crime thriller, it works brilliantly. I wish Neil Jordan would operate more in this genre, because with this and the phenomenal Crying Game, which came out six years later, he has proved twice over his massive capability for making crime thrillers that are unique and wickedly intense.As George is driven down this dark path into the new underworld, a place darker and more twisted than it was when he went away, Jordan paces everything with a slow burn that gets downright diabolical in it's final act. Michael Caine shows up as the sinister crime boss and he practically tears through the screen with his malice, along with a solid supporting turn by The Wire's Clarke Peters. There's an elevator scene near the end that just about made me sweat it was so intense and unexpected. Hoskins portrays George as an intimidating man with a rage inside of him, but when he's on screen with Caine he looks like a chubby boy being picked on at the playground.The relationship between George and Simone is built in a refreshingly honest way, played with genuine sincerity by Hoskins and Tyson, and all of this leads to a practically flawless crime thriller. However that's not where the film stops, as there is so much more going on beneath the surface. One could take it all at face value and still manage to be amazed, I know I sure would have been, but I found that the themes resonated far deeper than that. It's unspoken, but I feel that the change of the world is really displayed in focus here by Jordan and in particular by Hoskins' portrayal of George. He came out of prison expecting to get right back into the crime game, but the world has changed and grown far too menacing for someone as simple and good-natured as him. George has a mean streak to him and is capable of great violence when necessary, but at his heart he is a man who believes in the old ways.He went down for another man and when he comes out of prison he buys that man a rabbit to let him know that he's back. It's not done as a message of anything sinister, but as a kind gesture, to buy a "fluffy rabbit with long floppy ears". Just take notice at how the tone of the film has shifted by the time the rabbit comes back at the end and we've come full circle, and you can feel how the weight of this theme pours through the picture. Another subtle way they display it all is through how George dresses himself. When he first gets money for a new wardrobe, he buys tacky and unsuitable clothing, making a fool of himself but he finds it hilarious. As he takes his job more seriously, he buys a finer wardrobe and the people that serve these wicked men take notice and respect him more as a result; they treat him as if he's anyone else. It's when George begins to revolt back against this changed world that he once again goes back to his more flamboyant clothing and embraces the good man that he always was.There's so much going on in Hoskins' performance that isn't laid out for the audience, but he makes it impossible not to see. That whole theme of coming out of prison to a much different and more frightening world is heartbreakingly portrayed through his expressions, he carries the whole thing almost on his own. The "guy falling for a prostitute" routine has been done dozens of times in cinema over the years, but there's an added weight to it here when Hoskins portrays the haunting loneliness of this character and how desperate he is just to have a companion. He's fresh out of prison in a world that doesn't want him anymore and all he wants is someone to treat him like he matters. This all comes through in the remarkably complex and detailed performance from Hoskins, which commands this rich film all the way through. As a crime thriller it's aces, but if you pay enough attention it is so much more.