Film

Mona Lisa

Name: Mona Lisa
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Released: 1986
Cast: Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Caine, Clarke Peters

Mona Lisa is a scuffed-velvet London noir: Bob Hoskins as an ex-con chauffeur hired to drive a high-class escort he's told not to fall for, doing exactly that. It's melancholy rather than flashy, more about longing and self-delusion than shootouts, though Michael Caine's oily menace keeps the threat real. For anyone who wants their crime story a little heartbroken.

TMDb rating

6.9

If you liked this

The Long Good Friday1980

Hoskins again, but this time as the boss rather than the driver—commanding a London gangster empire that's unravelling in real time, with a young Helen Mirren holding her own against him.

But It's colder and angrier than Mona Lisa, with none of that film's tenderness—this is pure escalating dread.

Get Carter1971

The blueprint for British gangster grit: Michael Caine ice-cold and vengeful in a Newcastle full of pornographers, corrupt councillors, and small men capable of big cruelty.

But Brutally nasty by design—there's little left of the romantic softness that makes Mona Lisa bearable.

Taxi Driver1976

Another lonely driver convinced he can rescue a woman from a world he doesn't understand, wound tighter and tighter until it breaks. Scorsese and De Niro at their most unbearable and brilliant.

But Far more disturbing and violent, with a protagonist much harder to root for than George.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pretty Woman1990

Both hinge on a man falling for a sex worker he's meant only to escort—Mona Lisa treats it as heartbreak and delusion, Pretty Woman as a happy ending. Same engine, opposite verdict.

The same premise—a man hired to be near an escort falls for her against every sensible instinct—played as a glossy, wish-fulfilment fairy tale instead of a noir tragedy.

But Deliberately soft and sanitised where Mona Lisa is bruised and honest; the questions Mona Lisa takes seriously, this one waves away.

Léon: The Professional1994

A hitman and a girl he shouldn't be this attached to, tenderness curdling uneasily against the violence around them—that same queasy, protective ache George feels for Simone.

But Luc Besson's stylised excess and the central relationship's discomfort will not sit well with everyone.

Croupier1998

Clive Owen drifting through a seedy, well-dressed London underworld with a woman he can't quite trust—cool, controlled, and soaked throughout in that same neon melancholy.

But More detached and cerebral; you watch Croupier rather than feel it the way you feel Mona Lisa.

American Gigolo1980no page yet

Flip the genders and the sunlight, and you've got the same collision of transactional sex and real feeling, this time set among LA's beautiful, doomed hustlers.

But Slicker and cooler than Mona Lisa's grubby London—some of its emotional rawness gets lost under the tailoring.

Sexy Beast2001

Ben Kingsley's terrifying gangster and Ray Winstone's desperate ex-crook trade menace and pathos in equal measure—British crime with real heartbreak underneath every threat they make.

But The violence is more explosive and the tone spikier here; there's less romance and more sustained dread.

Layer Cake2004

Slick, funny, London-set crime with a protagonist trying to get out of the game clean, discovering—the hard way—that the underworld never really lets anyone go.

But Glossier and more knowing than Mona Lisa, and its style sometimes outruns any real feeling underneath.

Nil by Mouth1997

Gary Oldman's unflinching look at working-class London violence and love, every bit as unglamorous and aching as Mona Lisa, minus any noir polish whatsoever to soften it.

But Punishingly raw and depressing throughout, with none of the genre pleasures that might soften the blow.

Chungking Express1994

Swap London fog for Hong Kong neon and you get the same ache: a man orbiting a woman tangled in crime he can't fully see, love as a kind of surveillance.

Wong Kar-wai's dreamy Hong Kong crime-romance follows lonely men drawn to unreachable women moving through the underworld's edges, all neon, longing, and beautiful loneliness.

But Fragmented, impressionistic and almost plotless—if you want George's clear moral stakes, this will feel like drifting smoke by comparison.

Pandora's Box1929

Mona Lisa's noir lineage runs straight back here: a magnetic woman, the men who orbit and misjudge her, and a tragedy that was always going to happen.

Louise Brooks originates the archetype Simone complicates—a woman whose desirability draws every man near her toward ruin—in a silent German melodrama that still crackles with modern feeling.

But Silent, nearly a century old, and its melodrama is pitched broader than Mona Lisa's quiet ache—patience required.