It isn't just Bob Hoskins' terrific, Oscar-nominated performance that makes Mona Lisa one of the more memorable British films of the 1980s. His role of George, fresh out of prison and working as chauffeur for a gangland boss's prize call-girl, certainly dominates the film, but there's much else to savour. Director Neil Jordan adopts a rich visual style that turns London's underbelly (including Soho sex dives and the Kings Cross red light district) into a garish and nightmarish hell-on-earth. Michael Caine, hair slicked back, turns up in a couple of key sequences as a seedy crime tsar oozing false bonhomie, while Cathy Tyson hypnotically combines slinky aloofness with bruised vulnerability as the up-market hooker Simone. There's also a nice cameo role for big Robbie Coltrane as George's eccentric buddy Thomas. Still, it's Hoskins' touching portrayal of unrequited love that so splendidly fills the screen and your memories, in spite of the 'So what? ' nature of the ending.

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