Mona Lisa Review
Neil_Jordan's Mona Lisa takes the audience on a journey through the paradoxically grimy yet elegant world of London's Soho district. The characters conflict in similar ways to the setting, as classy call girl Simone (Cathy_Tyson) and boorish George (Bob_Hoskins) are constantly at each other's throats. In an interesting twist on the fish-out-of-water theme, Simone tries to teach George how to behave in polite society, while he tries to show her the truth about her lifestyle. The slimy world of King's Cross is appropriately and convincingly presented through George's empathetically innocent eyes. Eventually, the pair's differences seem less important than the loneliness and desperation that they share. Their doomed love is made all the more poignant by their shared sense of isolation from the worlds that they inhabit. Mona Lisa is elevated by a keen, cutting script that is brutally honest in its character revelation and scorching dialogue. Jordan makes intelligent use of camera angles and lighting to demonize Michael_Caine's character, the underworld boss Mortwell. Simone is distant, elusive, enigmatic, and well played by Tyson. Hoskins embraces this complex role with a delicacy and range that must make him the envy of working actors everywhere. There are echoes of Martin_Scorsese's Taxi_Driver in the prostitution-and-redemption themes of the King's Cross scenes, as well as in Hoskins' brave and urgent performance. Dan Jardine, Rovi
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