Second only to Neil Jordan's best, The Crying Game, Mona Lisa is a beautiful, heart-breaking film about an enigmatic call girl and the simple man that'll do anything to have her. Although this has lots of obvious parallels to Taxi Driver - from settings to circumstances - this film is much more elegant and romantic. Jordan has a skill for creating really likable people out of disgusting archetypes - we've got criminals, hookers, and the like running around in a seedy underworld of strip clubs with drug users, pimps, and such composing the cast, yet many of these characters are penned and photographed without judgement by Jordan and actually come off as decent, even good people. It's a testament to Jordan's ability that he can imagine characters like this without any trickery or fraudulence. We also have to credit Hoskins, who turns in one of my favorite performances of all time as the wounded chauffeur. These players feel authentic, as do their circumstances. And, as always, the film is exceptionally crafted - the photography is amazing. There's so much to say about this film - I guess I'll stop and just insist that you go see it.
