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A stylish, melancholy neo-noir that uses a crime plot to explore loneliness, desire, and the need to be needed. Bob Hoskins gives it bruised humanity, while the London underworld setting and queer sex-work milieu give the film a distinctive, empathetic edge.
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 1h 45m
Director: Neil Jordan
Starring: Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine
George is a small-time crook just out of prison who discovers his tough-guy image is out of date. Reduced to working as a minder/driver for high class call girl Simone, he has to agree when she asks him to find a young colleague from her King's Cross days. That's when George's troubles just start.
Neil Jordan
Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine
A stylish, melancholy neo-noir that uses a crime plot to explore loneliness, desire, and the need to be needed. Bob Hoskins gives it bruised humanity, while the London underworld setting and queer sex-work milieu give the film a distinctive, empathetic edge.
Mona Lisa is one of those crime films that keeps revealing how tender it is beneath the grime. Neil Jordan stages the London underworld with hard edges and smoky atmosphere, but the real pull is the emotional vulnerability at the center: a man who mistakes proximity for purpose, and a woman who understands the cost of being seen too clearly.
Bob Hoskins is extraordinary, turning George into a bruised, funny, sometimes pathetic figure whose roughness never fully hides his longing. Cathy Tyson gives Simone poise and mystery without reducing her to an object of rescue, and Michael Caine adds a cold, sleazy pressure that keeps the film tense.
What lingers most is the film’s empathy. It is noir, but not cynical; romantic, but not sentimental. The result is a smart, sad, unusually humane thriller that feels both of its era and ahead of it.
Sally Jane Black · 368 likes
This is, of course, what you get when you hire actors. My main complaint is that Clarke Peters didn't get more time and presence, but when you have Bob Hoskins taking center stage, I will forgive even such an egregious error. It's not a feminist gangster noir, but it's still got empathy for queer sex workers--if this were a cop story, they'd be expendable dumpster-filler. Here, they're at least people. Hoskins treats everyone with his gruff compassion, so the patronization
David Sims (4★) · 360 likes
hoskins makes grumpiness just so sexy
Iman Vellani (4.5★) · 331 likes
Why don’t people talk about this film in the same breath as Taxi Driver???
Joel Haver (4★) · 261 likes
The characters in this film act unpredictably and that is doubly true for Bob Hoskins’s George. Towards the end of the film George shoots any and all growth he’s made in the foot, unveiling the sadness laying beneath his actions. And while it’s frustrating to watch, and near impossible to support, it’s easy to understand. There’s something so utterly human about needing to be wanted and wanting to be needed, and the way we collapse into ourselves when we realize we are neither. At least not anymore. At times a romp, other times genuinely unnerving and incredibly dark, this was a fantastic surprise.
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3.5★) · 192 likes
Another one of those films I’ve only known because of its poster and people posting about it over here. To be honest, the poster gave me some early 40s vibes; I legit thought this was a really old film from that decade. Instead, what we got here is yet another example of Neil Jordan’s mastery at tackling sexuality in a pretty subject matter. This time, the narrative centers on an ex-convict who accepts a job as a high-class call girl's… more
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Not a tonal match, but useful only as a disambiguation placeholder for the title; the real recommendation is for audiences searching the name.
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For the same British criminal milieu and a lead performance that makes menace and vulnerability coexist.
A superb low-key crime film about exhaustion, compromise, and the sadness of small-time criminal life.
A noir-inflected detective story where the investigation matters less than the emotional rot underneath it.
loneliness, obsession, desire, class divide, queer sex work, redemption, emotional vulnerability, London underworld
neo-noir, British crime drama, 1980s, melancholy, urban underworld, queer-coded, romantic thriller, character study, gritty, atmospheric