
After getting out of prison, George (Bob Hoskins) looks for a job, but his time in prison has reduced his stature in the criminal underworld. The only job he can find is to be a driver for beautiful, high-priced call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson), with whom he forms an at first grudging, and then a real, affection. But Simone's playing a dangerous game, and when George agrees to help her, they both end up in deep trouble with Mortwell (Sir Michael Caine), the local kingpin.... (Full plot summary below)
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After getting out of prison, George (Bob Hoskins) looks for a job, but his time in prison has reduced his stature in the criminal underworld. The only job he can find is to be a driver for beautiful, high-priced call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson), with whom he forms an at first grudging, and then a real, affection. But Simone's playing a dangerous game, and when George agrees to help her, they both end up in deep trouble with Mortwell (Sir Michael Caine), the local kingpin.
Leave your thoughts about Mona Lisa.
| Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)Ken HankeFirst-rate character study and thriller from Neil Jordan |
| Three Movie BuffsScott NashA superb cast lead by Bob Hoskins in the performance of his career. |
| ReelViewsJames BerardinelliIn an era when movies about love almost always invariably devolve into formulaic affairs, Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa stands out as an often-surprising, multi-layered achievement. By offering a rumination on a wide variety of love - real, imagined, romantic, sexual, and platonic - Mona Lisa defies easy categorization and offers a complex and superior one-hundred minutes for all who view it. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe movie's ending is a little too neat for my taste. But in a movie like this, everything depends on atmosphere and character, and "Mona Lisa" knows exactly what it is doing. |
| CineVueJohn BleasdaleShines out as a rough diamond, a masterpiece of British cinema undeniably worthy of its classical title. |
| Chicago TribuneGene SiskelA wonderful achievement, a dark film with a generous heart in the shape of an extraordinarily touching performance from Hoskins. |
| Los Angeles TimesSheila BensonIn a season not noted for adult diversions, Mona Lisa could hardly be more welcome: a glorious, heart-shaped box of bittersweet chocolates for the grown-ups in the house. |
| NewsweekDavid AnsenHis vision is most immediately reminiscent of from the hellish New York of Scorsese's Taxi Driver, but Hoskins provides the crucial difference, spiking the nihilism by emerging from the abyss with a glimmer of hope instead of a thousand-yard stare. |
| Chicago ReaderDave KehrDirector Neil Jordan (Danny Boy, The Company of Wolves) does a good job of re-creating the dark romanticism of American film noir, and if the project does feel a little like a hand-me-down, it is graced by Jordan's fine, contemporary feel for bright, artificial colors and creatively mangled space. |
| Ozus' World Movie ReviewsDennis SchwartzA dreary but compelling romantic crime thriller about love being the important ingredient in life. |