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Mona Lisa (film)

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Mona Lisa
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNeil Jordan
Written byNeil Jordan
David Leland
Produced byStephen Woolley
Starring
CinematographyRoger Pratt
Edited byLesley Walker
Music byMichael Kamen
Production
company
Distributed byPalace Pictures[1]
Release dates
  • 13 June 1986 (1986-06-13) (US)
  • 19 September 1986 (1986-09-19) (UK)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£2 million[2] or £2.4 million[3]
Box office£4,107,000 (UK)[3]

Mona Lisa is a 1986 British neo-noir[4] crime drama film directed by Neil Jordan, and written by Jordan and David Leland. It was produced by HandMade Films and stars Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, and Michael Caine. The film is about an ex-convict (Hoskins) who becomes entangled in the dangerous life of a high-class call girl (Tyson).

The film was nominated for multiple awards, and Hoskins was nominated for several awards for his performance (including the Academy Award for Best Actor), winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film takes its title from the song "Mona Lisa", which is heard at the beginning of the film.

Plot

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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.

Cast

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Reception

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The film received a mostly positive critical reception when released in 1986. On Metacritic Mona Lisa has a score of 85 out of 100 based on reviews from 20 critics.[5] On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 98% rating based on 40 reviews. The site's consensus: "Bob Hoskins is outstanding in Mona Lisa, giving this stylish neo-noir a riveting centerpiece that sets it apart from similar stories."[6]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago 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."[7] Time Out called it "a wonderful achievement, a dark film with a generous heart in the shape of an extraordinarily touching performance from Hoskins."[8] Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide declared: "Hoskins and newcomer Tyson are terrific; Caine is wonderfully slimy in support."[9] 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."[10] Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, was less impressed, dismissing the film as "classy kitsch... as smooth and distinctive (and, ultimately, as insubstantial) as the old Nat (King) Cole recording of the song, which gives the film its title and a lot of its mood".[11] 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."[12]

Accolades

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Hoskins was praised for his performance and was awarded the Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, and Cannes Film Festival Award, all for Best Actor. He received his only Academy Award nomination for this film, but lost to Paul Newman in The 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 with William 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

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Mona Lisa (1986)". BBFC. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  2. ^ Alexander Walker, Icons in the Fire: The Rise and Fall of Practically Everyone in the British Film Industry 1984–2000, Orion Books, 2005 p. 54 [ISBN missing]
  3. ^ a b "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 26.
  4. ^ Philip French (26 July 2015). "The Long Good Friday/Mona Lisa review – captivating visions of London's underworld". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  5. ^ "Mona Lisa". Metacritic.com.
  6. ^ "Mona Lisa | Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.
  7. ^ Ebert, Roger (2 July 1986) "Review: Mona Lisa" Chicago Sun-Times (Retrieved: 6 July 2021)
  8. ^ https://www.timeout.com/movies/mona-lisa#google_vignette
  9. ^ Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2011 edition, .
  10. ^ Kael, Pauline 5001 Nights at the Movies 1991 ISBN 0-8050-1366-0.
  11. ^ Canby, Vincent (13 July 1986) "Movie Review: Mona Lisa (1986)". The New York Times (Retrieved: 12 March 2010)
  12. ^ Halliwell's Film Guide, 7th edition 1987 ISBN 978-0-00-638868-5.
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