Mona Lisa

Plot synopsis:
George (Hoskins), a low-level working-class gangster recently released from prison, is given a job in London by his former boss, Denny Mortwell (Caine), as the driver and bodyguard for a high-priced prostitute named Simone (Tyson). Mortwell also wants George to gather information on one of Simone's wealthy customers for blackmail purposes. Simone, who has worked hard to develop high-class manners and an elite clientele, initially dislikes the uncouth and outspoken George, and he regards her as putting on airs. But as George and Simone find out more about each other, they form a friendship, and George begins to fall in love with her. George agrees to risk his own life to help Simone find her teenage friend Cathy (Hardie), who has disappeared, and whom Simone fears is being abused by her violent former pimp, Anderson (Peters).
George increasingly finds himself torn between his feelings for Simone, his obligations to his boss Mortwell, and his relationship with his teenage daughter Jeannie, a sweet normal girl who has matured while he was in prison and wants to have her father in her life.
After Anderson attacks George, Simone flees to Brighton. George finally finds Cathy and takes her to Brighton to reunite her with Simone, where he lends Simone his gun. He discovers that Simone and Cathy are lovers, and that Simone doesn't care about him and only used him to find Cathy. Mortwell and Anderson then arrive to take back control of Simone and Cathy, and an enraged Simone shoots them both dead and then threatens to shoot George. He punches her, takes the gun and leaves - upset at her ingratitude. Freed of his underworld obligations, George returns to a more normal life, working in his friend's garage and spending time with Jeannie.

Tags: romantic, neo noir

Review:
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.
Caine soon gets George back on the payroll, as an exclusive chauffeur for high class call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson).
"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.
He's given the initially thankless task of acting as chauffeur for high class prostitute Simone, played by the lovely and amazing Cathy Tyson.
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.
The film deals with an ex-con named George, played by Bob Hoskins who gives a fantastic performance, who is given a job by his old boss, Mortwell, as played by Michael Cain (another fantastic performance).
It's a powerful film, showing the gritty side of the London underworld and it cannot go wrong with two of the best ever performances from the masters - Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine.
with incredible, top-of-the-line performances from Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine (playing a scary bad guy) and Cathy Tyson.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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).
George (Bob Hoskins) newly out after a stint in prison, agrees to  chauffeur Simone (Cathy Tyson) "a tall, black, tart".
Bob Hoskins most likely should have won the Oscar for Mona Lisa, a crime love story if such a thing exists.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
What George doesn't count on is that the contempt he feels for her will turn into affection.Like The Crying Game before it, Mona Lisa is a down and dirty, gritty movie and this styling does the film no end of favours when it comes to portraying the plot.
This movie reminded me a lot of Taxi Driver with its characters and plot.Bob Hoskins gives an outstanding performance as a lonely loser who is employed as a chauffeur to a call girl(Cathy Tyson).
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.
The only job he can get is to drive high-priced call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson) for local gangster Denny Mortwell (Michael Caine).
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).
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).
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 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.
Mona Lisa is a bleak at times noir fuelled by two central characters that never seem to enjoy the world and work they're involved with but try to put on a face for each other, initially out of the fact they don't want to seem the weaker of the two, but later to just survive.The two in question are George (Hoskins) and Simone (Tyson).
From here, it is possible to translate the Taxi Driver text into Mona Lisa and state that London (within this film and in the real world) has developed a level of seediness and prostitution in the years since George has been inside since his reaction of disgust is also one of surprise  was it there pre-Thatcher, before he went to prison?Director Neil Jordan is a very accomplished filmmaker and Mona Lisa could be seen as a swipe at the Thatcher government at the time, a government that took control of Britain and updated it with the post-modern and modernity as a whole and yet let society and the actual world around us slip into a decay of prostitution, constructed peep shows and other such content excellently highlighted by George's descent through the district in montage format that does not rely on dialogue but emphasises its point by means of the visual as a Genesis track aptly entitled 'In Too Deep' plays over it.Yet on top of all this content we might be able to read into, Mona Lisa is study of relationships between people.
"Mona Lisa" with Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, and Michael Caine, is aninteresting, funny and sad love story that takes us to the depths of the sleazy London flesh trade in the 1980's.
Hoskins is George, an ex-con who gets hired to drive a high class hooker named Simone around London for crime bossMichael Caine.
Viewed from a distance, Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa seems even more like a seminal British film of the 1980s than it did at the time.
As their relationship progresses, however, the two become friends, and George even begins to fall in love with Simone- so much so that when she asks him for help in finding her friend Cathy, who has disappeared, George readily agrees, even though he may be putting himself in danger by doing so.The title does not refer directly to Leonardo's famous painting, which is never seen or referred to, but rather to the Nat King Cole song, which serves as the film's theme tune.
These divisions are even reflected in the world of prostitution; there is a sharp contrast between the superficially glamorous world of high-class call-girls like Simone, wined and dined by the wealthy elite in luxury hotels, and the seedy world of streetwalkers like Cathy and the pathetic Irish teenager May, brutalised both by their clients and their pimps.The film reunites Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins, who had previously acted together in "The Honorary Consul".
When I first saw "Mona Lisa" in the cinema in 1986 I found it no more than a run-of-the-mill neo-noir crime drama, but over the years my respect for it has increased, and today its gripping story, fine acting and cold-eyed look at the Britain of the period make it one of the key films in this eighties revival.
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.
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..
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.
Hoskins is ably supported by his fellow cast , Cathy Tyson who unfortunately ended up being typecast after this film , Robbie Coltrane before he became famous for CRACKER , and Michael Caine who makes a rare but very good cameo appearance.
Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa is a gangster film, but it's a love story, but it's not romantic, but it's sentimental.
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.
In "Mona Lisa", Hoskins plays an excon who takes a job as a chauffeur for a call girl (Tyson) and becomes involved with seedy underworld people as he attempts to help her find a young woman also in the sex trade.
What kicks off MONA LISA is the unlikely relationship between ex-con chauffeur (Bob Hoskins) and high-end call girl (Cathy Tyson).
A crime drama showing the seamy (often very seamy) side of London's underworld,MONA LISA is a sometimes flawed but mainly absorbing mid-80's British pic with an outstanding performance at it's centre from Bob Hoskins.A newly released con,George (Hoskins) has taken the rap for his former boss,Denny Mortwell (Michael Caine) by doing seven years inside.An attempted reunion with his wife fails miserably, though he keeps in contact with his teenage daughter, and Mortwell gets him work as a driver for a high-class prostitute Simone (Cathy Tyson) whom George soon falls in love with.Simone's response is more measured,and she asks him if he can find and trace a younger prostitute whom she befriended,Cathy (Kate Hardie),with the unpleasant intentions of Mortwell and her sadistic pimp (Clarke Peters) always a continuing threat.MONA LISA has some decidedly sordid aspects in it's plot and content, with Mortwell having no scruples in procuring clearly underage girls (usually drug-addicted) to wealthy and perverted elderly clients, requesting George gets photos of Simone's clients in compromising positions (for obvious blackmailing purposes), and hanging around the seediest bars and sleaziest strip joints.This material quite easily could have tipped over the top and into sensationalism,but Neil Jordan's admirably understated and atmospheric direction thankfully prevents it from doing so,with apposite cinematography in murky,desaturated tones effectively lensed by Roger Pratt,capturing the sense of gloom and melancholy perfectly.The film's main flaw are scenes involving George and his mechanic friend Thomas (Robbie Coltrane) who he lodges with.Presumably intended as light relief and further explanations of the plot, they merely come across as irrelevant and superfluous and cause lapses in the skillful mood and atmosphere Jordan creates in the crux of the film around the red light district of King's Cross and Soho,and swankier hotels in contrast.This was the mid-80's era of expanding free market ethics and Yuppiedom,but there's little indication of this in MONA LISA,perhaps emphasising an essential soulessness to the period's outlook, with a predictably miserable image of a dank,chilly English seaside in Brighton.There's a basic unlikability to all the characters on view,yet Hoskins makes his character wholly sympathetic,as we travel with him into a world he is increasingly horrified and repelled by,and seemingly attempts to prise away those caught in such a labyrinth of unending nastiness and seediness.His love for Ms Tyson is genuinely touching,adding complex layers to a character that is on the face of it bullish and intimidating,yet deep down very caring,protective if even compassionate,with a heartbreaking revelation that the love is not requited.Much of the film resembles TAXI DRIVER in this sense,though Hoskins' George is a rather more mentally stable hero than Robert De Niro's anti-heroic Travis,with MONA LISA's violent climax not of his making.There's fine support from Caine as the evil Mortwell,and a often touching portrayal by Cathy Tyson who struggles to keep her senses in the midst of the violence and perversity she is tragically subject to.But this is Hoskins' film all the way,with his memorable performance than even has tinges of humour helping to take the edge of the often questionable material and subject matter at hand,and with the help of Jordan's careful direction (barring the unnecessary scenes with Coltrane),making MONA LISA one of the better British films of the mid-80's.RATING:7 1/2 out of 10..
Unable to find work his friend Thomas (Robbie Coltrane) explains the realities and changes in the neighbourhood, then his former boss, local kingpin Mortwell (Sir Michael Caine), hires him to work as a driver, and driving his returned Jaguar he drives and is bodyguard to high-class call girl Simone (BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Cathy Tyson).
Hoskins gives a fantastic aggressive performance as well as some more tender moments, Tyson is good as the emotionally damaged hooker, and Caine is good with his time on screen being quite sinister, it is a simple story of a man falling in love with a woman, but there are twists along the way as she and situations becomes much more complicated, there is a fair amount of violence and thuggery, and it is both thrilling and moving in the right places, it's a terrific crime drama.
Released in 1986, the film stars Bob Hoskins as George, an ex-convict who is hired to ferry a call girl, Simone (Cathy Tyson), around London.
It is from the latter relationship that George is given a job driving high-class prostitute Simone and it is here, with the exception of a few twists and turns, where the crux of the story is developed.At its core, Mona Lisa is a romance.
Bob Hoskins' Oscar-nominated portrayal of George makes him a very sympathetic character primarily because he's fundamentally good-natured but also because of how bewildered he is by so much of what transpires.Cathy Tyson is utterly convincing as the elegant Simone, Robbie Coltrane is great as the likeable Thomas who has a liking for bizarre thriller plots and Michael Caine is excellent as Denny Mortwell, a diabolical villain who's ruthless, repulsive and completely devoid of any redeeming qualities.As the movie's director and co-writer, Neil Jordan certainly did a great job of creating a genuinely offbeat, skillfully directed story that's incredibly atmospheric and featured numerous recognizable London locations to give the movie its strong sense of time and place..