Narrating on the commentary track, which is comprised of excerpts from a 1996 interview conducted by The Criterion Collection, director Neil Jordan explains how he rewrote much of David Leland’s original screenplay to fit Hoskins’ screen persona. The part of George was originally intended for Sean Connery, but in the rewrite, Hoskins’ short stature, cockney accent, and baldness become integral parts to George’s character. Painfully ordinary, George exudes a noirish sensibility that at times seems at odds with the movie’s contrived plot. George, who’s falling for Simone, becomes entangled in her plot to rescue a long lost friend named Cathy from the grips of seedy pimp/impresario Mortwell (Michael Caine, in full-on sleaze mode). With its obvious homage to Taxi Driver, the screenplay works better than it should as a kind of neo-noir exercise fitted for an '80s audience.

The most convincing scenes in Mona Lisa are the improvised ones, and viewing them with the audio commentary, it’s clear that they are also the most emotionally nuanced. When George impulsively rescues Simone from one of her kinkier clients, Hoskins (who also provides audio commentary) explains how he came up with the idea of having George and Simone sit on the bed back to back. Unable to look each other in the eye, their positioning mimics their mutual inscrutability. In a later pivotal scene set on a boardwalk, George and Simone wear children’s sunglasses as they confront each other over Cathy’s fate. The sunglasses were an idea Jordan devised on the set as a way of concealing their eyes . With their fluorescent colors, the sunglasses succeed at making George and Simone look ridiculous at a point in the story when both have sunk to their lowest.

With its impossible love between a criminal on the rebound and a mysterious black prostitute, Mona Lisa resonates as a harbinger for Jordan’s 1992 feature The Crying Game. Simone often feels like an early sketch for The Crying Game’s Dil: both are sexually ambiguous, both have missing lovers, and both exact a bloody revenge by the movie’s end. Simone’s expensive outfits are something a drag queen might wear, though her ability to tower over Hoskins provides a more convincing case for her asexuality.

Mona Lisa was Jordan’s first international success. He followed it up with Dance with a Stranger and then two failed Hollywood pictures before finding his beat again in the early '90s. A novelist turned filmmaker, Jordan has never distinguished himself as a visual director, but he does point out certain subtleties, such as the use of steam in certain scenes and the bold use of mirrors. His greatest weakness, he admits, is his tendency to lose interest in certain aspects of the story he’s working on, and true enough, certain characters in Mona Lisa are too casually dispatched. Still, the central relationship between George and Simone remains seductively vague throughout, a testament to Jordan’s mastery of romantic complexity and Hoskins’ ability to navigate a sea of dark emotion.