| Mona Lisa | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Neil Jordan |
| Written by | Neil Jordan David Leland |
| Produced by | Stephen Woolley Patrick Cassavetti |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Roger Pratt |
| Edited by | Lesley Walker |
| Music by | Michael Kamen |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Palace Pictures[1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 104 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £2 million[2] or £2.4 million[3] |
| Box office | £4,107,000 (UK)[3] |
Mona Lisa is a 1986 Britishneo-noir[4]crimedrama film directed byNeil Jordan, and written by Jordan andDavid Leland. It was produced byHandMade Films and starsBob Hoskins,Cathy Tyson, andMichael Caine. The film is about an ex-convict (Hoskins) who becomes entangled in the dangerous life of a high-classcall girl (Tyson).
The film was nominated for multiple awards, and Hoskins was nominated for several awards for his performance (including theAcademy Award for Best Actor), winning theGolden Globe Award for Best Actor andBAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film takes its title from the song "Mona Lisa", which is heard throughout the film.
George, a low-level working-class gangster recently released after seven years in prison, is given a job in London by his former boss, Denny Mortwell, as the driver and bodyguard for a high-priced prostitute named Simone. Mortwell also wants George to gather information on one of Simone's wealthy customers for blackmail purposes. Simone, who has worked hard to develop high-class manners and an elite clientele, initially dislikes the uncouth and outspoken George, and he regards her as putting on airs. But as George and Simone find out more about each other, they form a friendship, and George begins to fall in love with her. George agrees, at the risk of his own life, to help Simone find her teenage friend Cathy, who has disappeared, and who Simone fears is being abused by her violent former pimp, Anderson.
George increasingly finds himself torn between his feelings for Simone, his obligations to his boss Mortwell, and his relationship with his teenage daughter Jeannie, a sweet normal girl who has matured while he was in prison and wants to have her father in her life.
When Anderson stalks Simone to her flat and tries to slash her, George takes her to the secluded garage where he lives with his friend Thomas and then finds the drug-addled Cathy. He takes the two girls to a hotel in Brighton and gives Simone a gun for protection, but then discovers that the pair are lovers. When Mortwell and Anderson arrive to take back control of the girls, Simone shoots them both dead and turns her gun towards George. He punches her, takes the gun and leaves. Freed of his underworld obligations, he returns to a more normal life, working in Thomas's garage and spending time with Jeannie.
The movie was inspired by a newspaper article about an ex convict charged in court for assault; he claimed he was defending some prostitutes from their Maltese pimps. Neil Jordan was taken by the aricle, later writing in his introduction to the published version of the script:
Dope, prostitution, race, Britain today, small-time pimps and petty thieves. In one breath it was talked about as a BritishTaxi Driver, in another as an update ofCasablanca andThe Big Heat, in another as a kind of opera without the singing bits - a tale as obvious asCarmen orRigoletto, with passion or the lust for passion thwarted by the alltoo-concrete world outside. I inclined towards the latter.[5]
David Leland wrote the first draft of the script which was rewritten by Neil Jordan. The lead role was originally offered toSean Connery, who was interested but his asking price was too high. The part then went to Bob Hoskins. Jordan rewrote the script again with the actor in mind.[6]
The film was going to be made byEMI Films which then pulled out of filmmaking.[7] HandMade Films stepped in.[8] Michael Caine agreed to play a support role as a favour to his friend Bob Hoskins.[9] Denis O'Brien of HandMade Films wantedGrace Jones to play the female lead but Jordan insisted on Cathy Tyson.[10]
The film was an art house success at the North American box office making over $10 million. It made over £4 million at the UK box office.[11]
The film received a mostly positive critical reception when released in 1986. OnMetacriticMona Lisa has a score of 85 out of 100 based on reviews from 20 critics.[12] OnRotten Tomatoes the film holds a 98% rating based on 40 reviews. The site's consensus: "Bob Hoskins is outstanding inMona Lisa, giving this stylish neo-noir a riveting centerpiece that sets it apart from similar stories."[13]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times wrote of the two main characters: "The relationship of their characters in the film is interesting, because both people, for personal reasons, have developed a style that doesn't reveal very much."[14]Time Out called it "a wonderful achievement, a dark film with a generous heart in the shape of an extraordinarily touching performance from Hoskins."[15]Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide declared: "Hoskins and newcomer Tyson are terrific; Caine is wonderfully slimy in support."[16]Pauline Kael praised the film: " ... Jordan shows a gift for making the emotional atmosphere visual, and vice versa. And the way he uses baroque touches and the clichés of old thrillers, they become part of a fluid, enjoyable texture, a melodramatic impasto with an expressive power of its own—a romanticism that pulls you along."[17]Vincent Canby, writing forThe New York Times, was less impressed, dismissing the film as "classy kitsch... as smooth and distinctive (and, ultimately, as insubstantial) as the oldNat (King) Cole recording of the song, which gives the film its title and a lot of its mood".[18]Leslie Halliwell stated: "Only this actor (Hoskins) could make a hit of this unsavoury yarn, with its highlights of sex and violence. But he did."[19]
Hoskins was praised for his performance and was awarded theGolden Globe Award,BAFTA Award, andCannes Film Festival Award, all for Best Actor. He received his only Academy Award nomination for this film, but lost toPaul Newman inThe Color of Money.
| Year | Award | Result | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Academy Award for Best Actor | Nominated | Bob Hoskins |
| BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role | Won | ||
| BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role | Nominated | Cathy Tyson | |
| Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama | Won | Bob Hoskins | |
| Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Nominated | Cathy Tyson | |
| Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor | Won | Bob Hoskins | |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor | Won | ||
| Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor | Won | ||
| London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor | Won | Bob Hoskins Tied withWilliam Hurt –Kiss of the Spider Woman | |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor | Won | Bob Hoskins | |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress | Won | Cathy Tyson | |
| National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor | Won | Bob Hoskins | |
| New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor | Won | ||
| Valladolid International Film Festival for Best Actor | Won |
