Rating of
4/4
It is an excellent film, but very dark
Matthew Brady - wrote on 06/19/23
“She was trapped. From the first time he met her. She was trapped. Like a bird in a cage. But he couldn't see it. He liked her, but he was the type who couldn't see what was in front of his face. And there she was, in pain. You can get soppy about someone, well, you can't see these things, and he was, soppy sod. She had faith in him. She believed in him. And he had a lot of hopes for her. And there was love. Yeah. She was in love alright. She really was. But not with him. And that's the story.”
If Taxi Driver showed us the dark underbelly and filth in New York City, then Mona Lisa showed us the dark going on in London.
At first glance, the premise seems straight out of a Rom-com comedy. George (Bob Hoskins) meets Simone (Cathy Tyson), who dislike each other at first until…
Well, you probably guess what happens next.
However, it could not be any further from your usual love story. Speaking of George, he is not your typical movie-leading man. In the beginning, George has gotten out of prison, which he has been in there long enough because he is out of his element/time in his new surroundings. He is a short-tempered British bulldog of a man, and whenever someone makes eye contact with him in public is about to get a knuckle sandwich. And yet, despite that, from our point of view, George comes across as awkward and weak. So yeah, he needs a job badly, and he gets one, a chauffeur and bodyguard for a beautiful prostitute named Simone.
Man, Bob Hoskins is so freaking fantastic in this. He never fails to make me chuckle but also makes me feel sorry for the unfortunate bastard. He shares the screen with Cathy Tyson, who is also as brilliant as Simone—her lovely voice and hypnotizing chocolate brown eyes with a bit of mystique to draw you in. I cared so much for the characters that I wanted things to work out or get better for them. I mean, two people who could not be more different but still can find the pros and cons in each other and still love each other.
Michael Caine has played a handful of villains in films, some I have yet to see, but for this performance, Caine portrays a dead-eye pimp who is cold-blooded and cruel. I have never seen this version of Caine before, but I will never forget it.
Mona Lisa is a brilliant and dark tale of unrequited love. There is an underline evil seediness, which we see and discover more from George's point of view. Prostitutes roam the streets of London and in brothels - some underage (some as young as 15). One scene that I thought director/writer Neil Jordan did so effectively through both visuals and music is capturing the lost innocence of these girls. Not to give away too much, but what I can say is it involves an underage prostitute suffering from the side effects of drugs that she acts childlike while there is a playground in the background with whimsical-like music playing.
