Mona Lisa (1986)

Director:

Neil Jordan

Writers:

Neil Jordan (screenplay) and
David Leland (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 June 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes love is a strange and wicked game.

Plot:

George, after getting out of prison, begins looking for a job, but his time in prison has reduced his stature in the criminal underworld...

Plot Keywords:

Driver | Gangster | Brighton England | Strip Club | Lesbian

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 13 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Bob Hoskins	...	George
Cathy Tyson	...	Simone
Michael Caine	...	Mortwell
Robbie Coltrane	...	Thomas
Clarke Peters	...	Anderson
Kate Hardie	...	Cathy
Zoë Nathenson	...	Jeannie (as Zoe Nathenson)
Sammi Davis	...	May
Rod Bedall	...	Terry
Joe Brown	...	Dudley
Pauline Melville	...	George's Wife
Hossein Karimbeik	...	Raschid
John Darling	...	Hotel Security
Bryan Coleman	...	Gentleman in Mirror Room
Robert Dorning	...	Hotel Bedroom Man

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1988) | Finland:K-18 (1986) | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 (2002) | Germany:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Company:

HandMade Films

Trivia:

At one point HandMade Films producer Denis O'Brien suggested Grace Jones for the role of Simone after seeing her on the poster for the Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985).

Quotes:

Simone: Haven't you someone to rush to?
George: You know I haven't.
Simone: Everyone should have.
George: Well, *you* haven't.
Simone: I'm different.
George: How? How are you different?
Simone: I'm the girl they rush home from.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 44th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1987) (TV)

Soundtrack:

MONA LISA

**** (Out of four)

"Mona Lisa" is one of those weird Neil Jordan dramedies which resound with more ferocity upon afterthought than while actually watching it. Like "The Crying Game", I was left with no immediate impression of the movie, but days after watching it, I became haunted by the film's ingratiating reality. 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. As he reaches his destination, the audience soon realizes what a heartbroken journey this man's life has been. 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). He is at first repelled by the "tall black tart", as she remarks about his slovenly appearance. In a subplot structured like a revisionist feminine "Pygmalion", George is made over by the prostitute into the appearance of a "gentleman", a contempestuous appearance which only magnifies his good-hearted nature in comparison with the cold-blooded Mortwell.

Soon, however, George and Simone strike a bond seemingly based on a mutual affection for the souls lurking beneath each facade. Simone details to George an old blonde friend named Cathy still working the streets and implores him to rescue her. Jordan builds upon the elements of "Taxi Driver" here and even pays homage to that film in one scene depicting the front end of George's automobile backlit by a seedy district filled with peep shows and pedophiles.

Of course George is starting to fall for his elegant charge, but his feelings are more of a fatherly nature than anything. Simone seems to feed off this affection, as she states that she does no more than drink tea at the behest of her clients and even provides snapshots of her doing so. 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. Of course the title implies this, and Jordan reinforces this symbolization with not only the Da Vinci painting and the Nat "King" Cole ballad, but with the incandescent statues of the Virgin Mary which his friend (Robbie Coltrane) collects. This is unarguably Hoskins' best performance, in a career entirely overlooked by even the most driven of film fanatics. After roles in "The Long Good Friday", "Pink Floyd: The Wall", this, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", and the upcoming "Felicia's Journey", one can deduce the sheer emotional vicissitude which compelled him to aim for, let alone attain, the raw power that comprises his characters.