Mona Lisa: A Review

MONA LISA

There are some films that feel longer than they perhaps should be. Other films fly so quickly that you would not mind if they ran a bit longer. Mona Lisa is in the latter category. With standout performances and an engaging story, Mona Lisa is a surprisingly optimistic film amidst the world of the criminal.

George (Bob Hoskins) has just left prison after a seven-year stint. He wants to reconnect with his daughter Jeannie (Zoe Nathenson) but finds fierce opposition in his ex-wife. In need of work, he reconnects with his old boss, Mortwell (Michael Caine). The crime boss gives him a job as a chauffeur to Simone (Cathy Tyson), a high-end escort. George struggles with his job, having contempt for the posh Simone as well as with such cumbersome technology like beepers (which he calls bleeper). Simone, for her part, finds the working-class George uncouth and boorish.

Nevertheless, they soon start bonding over their mutual lowly positions and a friendship starts. George finds himself wanting to make it more than a friendship but is puzzled why Simone insists on driving past the seedy King's Cross area to see the other working girls. She soon reveals that she is searching for Cathy, a friend and fellow hooker whom Simone is worried about after having lost contact. George soon agrees to search for Cathy when he is not on the clock.

George eventually finds Cathy (Kate Hardie), who is terrified of her pimp Anderson (Clarke Peters). There is more going on underneath: kinky goings-on, violence and danger for Simone, Cathy and George. Will the trio manage to survive with Anderson and Mortwell after them? Will George manage to extract himself out this life to be a good father to Jennie?

At one point in Mona Lisa, Jeannie asks her father, "Are you still a bad lot?". I think this is the central theme of Mona Lisa: George's ultimate redemption. He knows that he has done bad things and is part of a dark, seedy world. At the same time, he seeks to protect Simone, save Cathy and be a good father to Jeannie. George is a common man in almost every way possible: working-class in his manner but also in his ethics. He finds the demimonde of sex workers and pornography vulgar. In a certain way, George is almost an innocent in this dark world.

Hoskins makes George a fascinating figure to follow in Mona Lisa (the title coming from the Nat King Cole song, one of the standards that George prefers to listen while driving or waiting for Simone). At heart, George is very traditional in his outlook: disdainful of the updates in technology, of the posh world of the elegant hotels Simone meets her clients. The gruff exterior hides a principled man, and Hoskins plays the part exceptionally well.

Writer/director Neil Jordan also reveals much in George's evolution in Mona Lisa. In one wonderful scene, Simone takes the very puzzled and reluctant George shopping for more appropriate clothes to change the loud outfits he prefers. He wears them, at first reluctantly and then acceptingly. Near the end, however, when he plans to help Simone and Cathy escape Anderson and Mortwell's clutches, he has gone back to the loud shirts that he came in with. This reveals that despite his best efforts, George is a working-class bloke, but one who has his standards of decency.

Jordan even allows a little bit of humor to sneak through. Late in Mona Lisa, Simone spies Cathy and Anderson at a clandestine meeting, with George accompanying her. George asks why it took place at a church. Simone replies, "It's the one place no one ever goes". 

The other performances are also quite strong. Tyson's Simone was a mix of fragility and strength. "They can have me, but they can't hit me," she yells at George when he strikes her in a rage over a sex tape he discovers. Tyson makes Simone a survivor, one who cares about her girlfriend Cathy but who also comes to rely on George as a confidant and shoulder to cry on. Hardie's Cathy is more tragic, such as when she begs George, pretending to be a client, to tell Anderson that she made him happy. 

Michael Caine may seem a strange choice as Mortwell insofar that it is a very small role. However, in his few scenes, he made Mortwell menacing in his ability to control others. Peters' Anderson too did well as this amoral pimp. Robbie Coltrane too did well as Thomas, George's friend and a mystery novel enthusiast. 

I will say that I was not sure if Thomas merely read mystery novels or wrote them. I think people might get lost with some of the accents, so subtitles are advisable. 

Mona Lisa earned Bob Hoskins a Best Actor Oscar nomination, but I was a bit surprised that In Too Deep by Genesis was not nominated. I believe it was written specifically for Mona Lisa, but there it is.

"Being cheap is one thing. Looking cheap is another," Simone tells George. The gap between appearance and being is an underlying theme in Mona Lisa, a tale where those in the underbelly of society display a quiet nobility and strength. It is a film that despite its neo-noir manner, has a happy ending, at least for some. 

DECISION: B+